Bringing Back Chestnut Trees

[thesummerqueen]

http://grist.org/food/bringing-back-ches...ty-treats/

“Maintaining or increasing forest cover has been identified as an important way to slow climate change,” said [associate professor of forestry Douglass] Jacobs, whose paper was published in the June issue of the journal Forest Ecology and Management. “The American chestnut is an incredibly fast-growing tree. Generally the faster a tree grows, the more carbon it is able to sequester. And when these trees are harvested and processed, the carbon can be stored in the hardwood products for decades, maybe longer.”

And then there are new marketing strategies. Chestnut flour is aimed at the gluten free crowd, but there’s also chestnut honey and beer. MSU helped develop peeled-frozen chestnut packs, hoping to appeal to the shopper on the go.

Interesting.

[Godscreated]

http://grist.org/food/bringing-back-ches...ty-treats/

“Maintaining or increasing forest cover has been identified as an important way to slow climate change,” said [associate professor of forestry Douglass] Jacobs, whose paper was published in the June issue of the journal Forest Ecology and Management. “The American chestnut is an incredibly fast-growing tree. Generally the faster a tree grows, the more carbon it is able to sequester. And when these trees are harvested and processed, the carbon can be stored in the hardwood products for decades, maybe longer.”

And then there are new marketing strategies. Chestnut flour is aimed at the gluten free crowd, but there’s also chestnut honey and beer. MSU helped develop peeled-frozen chestnut packs, hoping to appeal to the shopper on the go.

Interesting.

 The American Chestnut may never be able to come back, the blight that has killed out the tree is still around. Some trees sprout out of the stumps of trees killed by the blight, the sprouts always die before they get 10 feet tall from the blight. Here in east Tennessee there's work being done to bring them back but so far not much success. I understand there's a group that's trying to cross breed the American Chestnut with the Chinese Chestnut to make it blight resistant. The blight came from the Chinese Chestnut, why someone thought such a little tree would be an advantage over the gigantic American Chestnut is beyond me. The American Chestnut was the everything tree for the people of the Appalachians, from building homes and furniture to food for themselves and live stock.

GC