Great news!!!

[G-man]

https://www.berkshireeagle.com/arts_and_culture/home-garden/blight-resistent-genetically-modified-chestnut-tree-hits-the-market/article_a6772270-b2df-11ed-ba83-bf7d8f1bd219.html

[Upstate Nerdneck]

Maybe in a few years they'll be open to the public.  I think it's just institutional for right now.

[nywaw]

Excellent!

[ATbuckhunter]

I've been following this for many years and I'm glad its finally been approved. I was just wondering yesterday what the updates are, but I did not bother looking it up. It wont be the only technique that'll be used, but it will be a very important one if it proves to be successful. 

[Spysar]

15 minutes ago, blackbeltbill said:

Hopefully  the DEC will do some plantings on Many State Lands

 

DEC rarely does anything to help.

[Wolc123]

I love the color of the American chestnut wood.  I used lots of it, that I recovered from my great great grandad’s old late 1800’s barns, to make shops and a loft inside my new metal pole-barn.  
 

My current project, is enclosing the back porch  with some more of it, and building a firewood storage lean-to off the back of that.  I just need the weather to break to get going on it.  Hopefully, next weekend.

That chestnut color shows up after power washing those old hand-hewn beams.  A couple coats of polyurethane holds it good ,after they dry, and makes for easy cleanup.  

[Bucksnbows]

@Rusty and I hunt the opposite sides of the same large piece of NJ state land known as Sparta Mountain. That area was a native American chestnut stronghold where it was documented that a full 90% of the forest makeup was chestnut. That left only 10% for the oaks, hickories, maples, etc. that are today the dominant species. There is an ongoing effort to restore chestnuts to this area. 

[G-man]

4 hours ago, ATbuckhunter said:

I've been following this for many years and I'm glad its finally been approved. I was just wondering yesterday what the updates are, but I did not bother looking it up. It wont be the only technique that'll be used, but it will be a very important one if it proves to be successful. 

This is the way to restore it .. the backcrossing  is  not effective as the growth characteristics do not seem to transfer the gene needed for resistance. These are 100%  american . In form and growth. 

[ATbuckhunter]

1 hour ago, G-man said:

This is the way to restore it .. the backcrossing  is  not effective as the growth characteristics do not seem to transfer the gene needed for resistance. These are 100%  american . In form and growth. 

I agree! The 15/16th tree's aren't as good, but I doubt they'll rely on 1 technique for restoration. I'm hoping they'll start fund raising and crank some trees out.

[Bucksnbows]

Our church was built in the 1860s and is mostly chestnut, including the pews. We brought in a new pastor maybe 15 years ago and she wanted to throw out the extra pews in the basement under the sanctuary just because they weren’t being used. I had to caution her that if we ever needed parts or to replace a pew, it would be very expensive if we didn’t keep these around. She had no idea that the wood was no longer common and would not be inexpensive if we had to replace any of it. So now the church is sitting on about 12 extra pews in the basement “just in case”. 

[Wolc123]

20 hours ago, Bucksnbows said:

Our church was built in the 1860s and is mostly chestnut, including the pews. We brought in a new pastor maybe 15 years ago and she wanted to throw out the extra pews in the basement under the sanctuary just because they weren’t being used. I had to caution her that if we ever needed parts or to replace a pew, it would be very expensive if we didn’t keep these around. She had no idea that the wood was no longer common and would not be inexpensive if we had to replace any of it. So now the church is sitting on about 12 extra pews in the basement “just in case”. 

That’s interesting.  We used some beams, that I saved out of my great great grandad’s old barns, to re-build the entry way of our church, about a mile down the road.   

I don’t think the ones that we used at the church were chestnut.  They were rough sawed, not hand-hewn.  They have a lime “white-washed” finish and were from a dairy-cow stable that had been rebuilt in the back barn by my great grandad back around the 1930’s.  I suppose that the blight had eliminated most of the local chestnut trees by that time.

Our current church building was put up in the 1960’s, so those sawed beams matched the style there a little better.  My great great great  grandad was one of the founding member's of our congregation, back in 1855.  His, is the oldest headstone in the cemetery around the corner, and the only one with a birthdate in the 1700’s.  
 

Edited February 26, 2023 by Wolc123