American Chestnut foundation - if you're interested in its restoration

[smokee]

I thought I post a link to this once prolific tree's restoration project. Their loss is a tragedy but hopefully they'll one day be restored. From my reading, it sounds like the wood would be like a combination of oak and locust - straight grain with a good amount of tannis. Wonder what the BTU rating was per cord. :msp_wink:

The American Chestnut Foundation - Restoring the American chestnut tree

Here's a link to the chestnut tree's Wikipedia page:

American chestnut - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I grew up at the foot of the Chestnut Ridge, an area covered with this once prolific tree. I'd love to see a blight resistant strain developed and reintroduced. Good food source for whitetail and bear.

Maybe some day we'll be talking about a cord of chestnut we just split or how well we're heating with it.

 

[s37d]

I live on the ocean in Mass and nearby is an estate with several old American Chestnut trees. They're alive and well. I remember walking past them as a kid, playing with the freshly dropped chestnuts in their spiny enclosures.

 

[blades]

I have two started here. About 4 ft high, been a rough start deer and such keep eating them.

 

[oppermancjo]

Are there different species of Chestnut? I remember growing up that we had one in the front yard but I wouldn't know if it was American or not. Made a mess each fall. One year my brothers and I were picking them up. Not sure why. Perhaps to shoot each other with our slingshots... A DTE (Power Company) truck stopped and the guy bought a bag from us! I dunno if he had a use for them or what.

 

[badkarma]

Just joined the American Chestnut Foundation.

 

[mountainmandan]

The next ridge to the south of me is called chestnut ridge, I am assuming that they lived here at one time. King of like all of the bear creeks we have around here, the bears are returning after a long absence. I hope we can make a difference.
Dan

 

[zogger]

Not sure but I think I have one here. I'll have to make a note of that and look closer to see what it is.

 

[rmihalek]

Our woods in east-central Mass have chestnuts all over the place. They typically grow to about 8-12 feet high then the blight kills them. New sprouts grow up from the stem of the dead one and repeat the cycle.

 

[blades]

Yes there are various kinds of chestnut trees, Including some newer hybreds. A pure American chestnut is a very rare tree nowadays. There is a small grove of them here in Wisconsin I believe.

 

[cowroy]

I have two Chinese chestnuts in the back yard that are about 25' tall and they are really the same except they don't have a single trunk, and don't grow as tall. The blooms, leaves, and chestnuts themselves look just like the American. My grandfather's bed is made of wormy American chestnut, and is a beautiful piece of furniture.

 

[Marc]

A lot of people confuse horse chestnut, which is not even really a chestnut, with American chestnut because the nut looks similar. I wouldn't eat horse chestnuts though.

There's an ACF orchard a half mile from where I work that's growing a bunch of American hybrids. I think they're 4 years old now. Exciting I get to watch them mature day by day I hope they are blight resistant.

 

[Marc]

I thought I post a link to this once prolific tree's restoration project. Their loss is a tragedy but hopefully they'll one day be restored. From my reading, it sounds like the wood would be like a combination of oak and locust - straight grain with a good amount of tannis. Wonder what the BTU rating was per cord. :msp_wink:

From what I understand, they weren't a particularly dense wood, but very strong. I have a some chestnut beams in my 1760 farmhouse, and they were apparently valued because they worked up nice with an axe and drawknife, and had a very good strength to weight ratio.

 

[s37d]

A lot of people confuse horse chestnut, which is not even really a chestnut, with American chestnut because the nut looks similar. I wouldn't eat horse chestnuts though.

I'm glad you posted that, because I just looked at pics of the horse chestnut and those are the ones near me. Evidently their chestnuts don't have the same value, and their wood is very poor quality compared to the American Chestnut.

The American Chestnut was quite a tree. I remember reading about how they reached the size of redwoods(~150 ft), had natural decay resistance, grew fast for a hardwood, and their lumber was both strong and easy to work. They made up more than 25% of the eastern woodlands. Must have been quite a sight.

 

[Dalmatian90]

Light as pine, strong as oak. Rot resistant, too.

We use it for dunnage at the fire company, get it salvaged from old barns.

My garage is mostly the odds and ends of salvaged Chestnut from a large barn that used to be up in Pomfret, CT that was re-used to build several chicken coops and commercial garages. Folks around this corner of Connecticut might notice there's not a lot of old barns in Brooklyn or the surrounding areas where there were Finns around raising chickens...most of them got torn down and re-purposed into chicken coops. Once you get outside of the chicken belt, you start to see a lot more old barns again.

 

[smokee]

Great Pic, thanks for posting!

 

[morewood]

I always love seeing that pic. I believe that it was taken here in the Smokey Mtns. We have an area here on our property that we plan on clearing to a large degree and hopefully planting these chestnuts. I have always wanted to see the forest with its full compliment of trees going again. Now if only the locust trees here would stop their slow process of death

Shea