Can lab genetics save American chestnut trees?
Prior to the 1900s, the American chestnut was widely considered the most valuable tree on the Pennsylvania landscape. Naturally rot-resistant, it was used to build barns, homes and expand the railway system.
Its nutritious mast fed animals and humans alike, and it was lauded as a keystone species across much of the Appalachian Mountain range. But when Chinese chestnuts were imported in the late 1800s, they brought with them a fungal pathogen that the American variety simply couldn’t survive.
Can lab genetics save American chestnut trees? Read More »
