A magnificent tree that once represented 25% of the hardwood forest of the Northeast North America. It's nuts fed flocks of passenger pigeons, turkeys, bear, squirrels, deer, and people. It was a valuable timber tree and its wood was especially rot resistant. But the chestnut blight, a fungal infection imported from Asia, wiped out those forests in just a generation.
There are a few isolated stands left, some perhaps blight resistant and some isolated by geography (settlers planted the tree throughout the upper midwest and west). There are efforts to bring it back to its historic range. You can help by planting these potentially resistant varieties.
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