Seed of Hope

     Invasive species are a side effect of intercontinental trade that override native ecosystem species and generate a population explosion that disrupts normal biological interactions. Most invasive species invigorate preservative and restorative environmental efforts to prevent long term or significant damage, but certain species fill ecosystem niches that prevent complete extraction. The kudzu vine, lion fish, and brown marinated stink bug are prevalent examples of invasive species currently expanding in the United States of America, but one of the first known invaders came from China at the beginning of the twentieth century. A scourge that destroyed huge portions of native American woodland and decimated lumber began in 1904 in New York City.
     The American chestnut was one of the most exceptional species of hardwood trees native to American woodlands. It provided a steady supply of nuts and lumber. Spread through the Appalachian Mountains, the American Chestnut consisted of one-third of all hardwoods in Eastern North American woodlands. The prevalence of the trees created a reliance on the mast (nut) production in early summer months that provided an off set to the autumn mast of most oak trees. Chestnut wood is also unusually resistant to rot and was useful for fence posts and shipbuilding and served as a key component to the expansion and quality of the British navy in the eighteenth century.
     Brought over by trade, the American Chestnut Blight swept through the eastern scoreboard in the first few decades of the twentieth century with the prevalence of the tree only contributing to its spread and infection. By the onset of World War II, chestnuts were ecologically extinct and were replaced by oak and maple in the woodlands of America. The tree joined the list of species negatively impacted by the spread of trade and disease. The prior importance of the chestnut to the culture of America brought the public's attention to the destroy of the native foliage and helped establish the American Park System and market hunting restrictions.

   
     After half a century of rotten stumps scattered through the new growth forests of the United States, a coalition of people interested in restoring the "king of trees" to the American woodland established the American Chestnut Foundation. Immediately they began a resistance breeding program that involved crossing the surviving American saplings with the resistant Chinese chestnut species. After more than a two decades of back-cross breeding to check for resistance to the blight, and the ACF began introducing breeding orchards to chapter houses along the chestnut's native range.
     With the documentation of the extinction of the dodo in the 1700s, the impact of humanity on the world became clear to the modern mind. By the early 1900s the impact of industrial exploitation of nature and the spread of disease through trade forced countermeasures to the unrestricted growth of capitalism. Since that time, mankind has striven to reverse some of his impacts and restore the areas of his destruction. As the most powerful, capable species on this planet, our decisions and commitments have great effect from the tiniest fungal spore to the reintroduction of the pride of the American forest, the king of trees, the mighty American Chestnut.

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Agatha Tyche