Ep. 272 - Restoring the American Chestnut
In Defense of Plants Podcast
In Defense of Plants
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 5 July 2020
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode is all about the work being done by The American Chestnut Foundation and their partners to save the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) from extinction. Ravaged by an invasive fungal pathogen, this tree went from a dominant species in our forest to a spattering of dwindling stump sprouts barely hanging on in the understories of eastern North American forests. Join me as I sit down with Director of Restoration, Sara Fitzsimmons, to talk about the amazing, multifaceted efforts being put forth to restore this native tree to its former glory. This episode was sponsored by The Great Courses Plus and produced in part by Steve, Kae, Carole, Mr. Keith Santner, Dana, Chloe, Aaron, Sara, Kenned, Vaibhav, Kendall, Christina, Brett, Jocelyn, Kathleen, Ethan, Kaylee, Runaway Goldfish, Ryan, Donica, Chris, Shamora, Alana, Laura, Alice, Sarah, Rachel, Joanna, Griff, Philip, Paul, Matthew, Clark, Bobby, Kate, Steven, Brittney, McMansion Hell, Joey, Catherine, Brandon, Hall, Vegreville Creek and Wetlands Fund, Kevin, Oliver, John, Johansson, Christina, Jared, Hannah, Katy Pye, Brandon, Gwen, Carly, Stephen, Botanical Tours, Moonwort Studios, Liba, Mohsin Kazmi Takes Pictures, doeg, Clifton, Stephanie, Benjamin, Eli, Rachael, Plant By Design, Philip, Brent, Ron, Tim, Homestead Brooklyn, Brodie, Kevin, Sophia, Mark, Rens, Bendix, Irene, Holly, Caitlin, Manuel, Jennifer, Sara, and Margie.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone and welcome to the Indefensive Plants podcast, the official podcast of |
| 0:04.8 | Indefensiveplants.com. |
| 0:06.3 | What's up? This is your host, Matt. Welcome to the show. How's everyone doing this week? |
| 0:10.2 | I've got a really exciting episode for you today because it's about the recovery of an iconic |
| 0:15.0 | species here in North America. I am, of course, talking about the American chestnut, |
| 0:19.6 | Castania Dentata. |
| 0:21.4 | Joining us to talk about this is Sarah Fitzsimmons. |
| 0:23.6 | She's the Director of Restoration for the American Chestnut Foundation, and she's here |
| 0:27.7 | today to talk to us about the multifaceted efforts being put forward to bring the species |
| 0:33.1 | back from the brink. |
| 0:35.0 | You may remember back to episode 107 with Dr. Kristen Wickert where we talked about the |
| 0:39.7 | plight of the American Chestnut and how it's been devastated by the Chestnut Blight. |
| 0:44.1 | We're not going to go into too much detail surrounding the blight. |
| 0:46.6 | You can go listen to episode 107 if you want to get more detail. |
| 0:49.5 | But our specific focus today is mainly on what's being done to bring the species back, |
| 0:54.1 | which includes everything |
| 0:54.9 | from breeding programs all the way up to genetic modification. This is a really important |
| 0:59.3 | conversation and it can set the foundation for a lot of really important conservation work |
| 1:04.2 | and bring a tree species back to somewhat of its former glory. This is incredible, so I don't |
| 1:09.1 | want to keep you from it. But first, a message from our sponsor that is helping make this podcast possible. Have you ever wondered |
| 1:15.8 | how ancient humans survived pandemics? Or maybe how sailors used to navigate using nothing |
| 1:20.2 | but the night sky? Well, now you don't need to wonder or spend endless hours on Google trying |
... |
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