American Chestnut: Resurrecting A Forest Giant

Science Diction

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Friday, Society & Culture, Science, Origin, Culture, Words, History, Word, Language

4.8 • 610 Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2021

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We have a favor to ask! We want to know more about what you like, what you don’t, and who you are—it’ll help us make better episodes of Science Diction. Please, take our brief survey. Thank you! At the turn of the 20th century, the American chestnut towered over other trees in Eastern forests. The trees would grow as much as 100 feet high, and 13 feet wide. According to legend, a squirrel could scamper from New England to Georgia on the canopies of American chestnuts, never touching the ground. And then, the trees began to disappear, succumbing to a mysterious fungus. The fungus first appeared in New York City in 1904—and then it spread. By the 1950s, the fungus had wiped out billions of trees, and effectively finished off the American chestnut. Now, some people are trying to resurrect the American chestnut—and soon. But not everyone thinks that’s a good idea. Guests: Sara Fitzsimmons is Director of Restoration, North Central Regional Science Coordinator, and Regional Science Coordinator Supervisor at the American Chestnut Foundation. Susan Freinkel is the author of American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree. Neil Patterson Jr. works at the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at SUNY, and is a member of the Tuscarora Nation. Bart Chezar is a chestnut enthusiast, and volunteers with the Prospect Park Alliance. Footnotes & Further Reading: Listen to oral histories from people who grew up with the American chestnut. Credits: This episode of Science Diction was produced by Shahla Farzan and Johanna Mayer. Elah Feder is our Editor and Senior Producer. Daniel Peterschmidt is our composer, and they sound designed this episode. Lauren J. Young contributed research, and Danya AbdelHameid fact checked the episode. Our Chief Content Officer is Nadja Oertelt.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, three quick items of business before we start. First, we have a survey. Would love your thoughts on
0:07.9	what you like, what you don't like, and who you are. You can fill that out at science friday.com
0:14.0	slash feedback for us. Second, I want to disclose that my partner's aunt works for the American
0:20.6	Chestnut Foundation.
0:22.1	You'll hear about the foundation a little later.
0:24.6	And finally, we're going to have a little announcement at the end of the show.
0:28.6	So keep listening after the credits.
0:31.2	Okay, here we go.
0:33.7	On a summer day in 1904, a forester named Herman Merkel was strolling the grounds of the Bronx Zoo.
0:41.0	When he noticed something strange, he noticed that the leaves on one of the trees were wilted.
0:46.6	Reporter Shayla Farzan, with me to tell this story.
0:49.5	When Herman looked closer, he saw that around the base of some of the branches, there was this
0:55.4	ring of dry bark, which soon became covered in tiny orange specks.
1:01.4	Whatever it was, it was spreading through the zoo grounds and fast, and it always attacked
1:07.4	just one type of tree, the American chestnut. By the following summer, the orange
1:14.7	specks had reached so many trees that Herman decided to ask for help. He sent off some of the sick
1:21.3	branches to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington. And after examining the specimens,
1:30.0	their fungus expert clearly saw cause for concern. She recommended the zoo get on it, stat, cut off the infected branches, and burn them. By the time
1:37.1	they were done, the zoo had pruned more than 400 trees. They then sprayed the trees with hundreds of gallons of fungicide.
1:46.6	Herman later wrote that some of the trees were so heavily infected that after cutting away all the disease branches, there was nothing but a bare trunk left.
1:57.2	They'd have to wait until the next growing season to see if this actually worked.
2:02.2	But all of this effort was like trying to put out an inferno with a squirt gun.
	...

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