James: That looks like a very nice exhibit, though I we didn't need such a memorial and that the chestnuts were still with us in their former glory.
I took my parents to a local park over the weekend and showed them a few American Chestnut trees, including one that stood about 20+ feet tall. I can safely say that they have never seen any member of this species alive since the Blight had basically destroyed the tree by WWII. It was a bittersweet moment since that one, sad little tree is merely a shadow of what once was... and even it had some signs of the Blight (loosening bark, deformations in the truck, etc.) If it were just the American Chestnut we had lost, it would be bad enough, but the Hemlocks are vanishing, the Ash trees of all kinds are disappearing, and other exotic threats loom, such as Beech Bark Disease, various Oak illinesses, the Asian Longhorn Beetle, various pests in the conifers out west, and so on. At least one can buy DED resistant Elm trees these days, and hopefully within 10 years or so, Blight resistant American Chestnuts will be available to the public for reasonable prices. I just wish humanity wasn't destroying species (trees or otherwise) faster than we're able to come up with ways to correct our mistakes. Anyway, nice exhibit and one well worth seeing since most people tend to think of extinct or nearly extinct species as "things in the distant past" like mammoths, etc. The loss of the American Chestnut is an eye-opener for many, I am sure. On Oct 20, 7:05 pm, James Parton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Fellow Ents, > > The Blue Ridge Parkway has a new Destination Center near Asheville NC that > has a major display dedicated to the American Chestnut tree. In fact it is > the dominant attraction in the building. It gives basic info on the tree and > it's contribution to American History and it's demise to the blight. Even the > Hemlock's peril is mentioned for comparison. It is a cool display even though > the artificial nuts in the display look more Chinese in size than American. > It even has an artificial chestnut limb complete with leaves. > > It is a shame that this is the closest many people will ever get to an > American Chestnut, not realizing that they still exist, even if at a reduced > state. The chestnut trees of Mt. Pisgah are mentioned here, which is a really > good place to view living trees in number. > > http://carolinas-tacf.org/newsletters/Carolinas_Newsletter_Spring_200... > > > James P > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection > aroundhttp://mail.yahoo.com > > DSC_6740.JPG > 88KViewDownload > > DSC_6742.JPG > 106KViewDownload --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org You are subscribed to the Google Groups "ENTSTrees" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
