Chestnut Tree Planting: Forestry Futures
Bald Eagle State Forest, PA
Imagine November 2029, a future where land stewardship and education are prioritized for us. Based on actual locations and research that exist, only a little radical imagination is needed to make these futures and forests our reality.
Chapter 1: Out In The Woods
Three years ago the lease to log this valley in the headwaters of the White Tail Creek within Bald Eagles State Forest, Pennsylvania went up for auction.
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About a 100 year old oak hickory forest was logged for the highest quality lumber you can imagine. From above, the extent of the cut is still visible. The forest canopy stops on the hillsides, avoiding the steep terrain and sensitive headwaters. Dozens of trees are left like islands in a lake. Dots of lush green leaves in the spread of grass and shrubs. These trees are left to be the parents of the next generation of trees. They are often not high enough quality timber to be cut down with strange bends, branching, or are simply already standing dead. Left like sentinels standing for the next generation.
Chapter 2: The Chestnut Trees from Generations Ago
I started carrying around a sketchbook in my first year of high school to capture intriguing images and scenes. Fifteen years and thirty sketchbooks later, it’s my primary technique to appreciate and understand the environment around me. My landscape and still life work is observational and representational, and much of it is created en plein air, which means I complete it on site. Whether it’s the subject matter, composition, markings, or color, the pieces are meant to capture the viewer’s interest. and encourage the viewer to see the landscape in a new way. (Castanea dentata).​
courtesy of The American Chestnut Foundation
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Before 1910, nearly thirty percent of Pennsylvania’s hardwood forests were composed of the almighty American chestnut. The species was prized for its lumber, often chosen for its durability and resistance to rot. Homes, barns, and even entire towns were constructed solely out of American chestnut timber. In addition to lumber, each tree produces in excess of 40 pounds annually of chestnuts—a tasty and nutritional food source—which was of significant economic value.
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However, a fungal blight, introduced to the U.S. in the early 1900s, decimated the mighty chestnut forests, killing almost all of them by the early 1940s.
Chapter 3: Tomorrows Chestnut Trees
Today a few resistant trees remain, growing on ridges and by the side of logging roads deep within state forests. Although their numbers have greatly diminished compared to the past, today almost 100 years later, chestnuts are once again appearing in these forests. While out exploring Bald Eagle State Forest, I found this sapling stand of chestnut trees growing vigorously.
Most of the specimens have sprouted from old stump roots. The sprouts grow until they become large enough, a couple inches in diameter, but then the original fungal blight resurfaces and kills them. Curiously, the blight leaves the roots alive for another sprout to grow again. In the forest, many of these roots are hundreds of years old dating back to forests from millennia ago , continuously growing sprouts that will die.
More surprisingly are the larger specimens producing fruit as pictured above. It is unclear if these trees are genetically resistant to the blight or growing far enough away from other specimens that the blight hasn't reached them. Whatever the case may be, chestnut trees will never be the same.
courtesy of The American Chestnut Foundation
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With help from scientists and the American Chestnut Foundation, botanists are working to bioengineer new blight resistant chestnut trees that will grow larger and healthier than the original species. We can envision this valuable timber and critical wildlife food source returning to the hillsides of the Appalachian Mountains and other regions. Prickly cases of chestnuts will soon be supporting the acorns of the oaks, nuts of hickories, and seeds of the poplars.
Chapter 4: Chestnut Tree Planting, November 24, 2029
Bald Eagle State Forest: Forestry Futures
30x40
Oil on Canvas
Short story and more imagined forestry futures coming soon...
.. Stay tuned...
