For blight-ridden American chestnut tree, rebirth may be in offing

Chestnuts made up about 50 percent of hardwood forests in much of the eastern seaboard.

The American chestnut tree, once a regal pillar of forests across the eastern United States, is on life support, struggling to survive.

"These look like death," said Vasiliy Lakoba, research director for the American Chestnut Foundation (ACF), which has been working since the 1980s to resurrect the species.

He pointed to a patch of stunted shrubs, chestnut trees that were a far cry from the noble, erect chestnut trees of yesteryear.

Settlers along the US eastern seaboard relied on abundant chestnut trees to feed their hogs, their children and themselves. Chestnuts made up about 50 percent of hardwood forests in much of the eastern seaboard, and the wood was ideal for building.

But then came a terrible fungus, identified in 1904 at the Bronx Zoo on a tree from Japan. In less than three decades, millions of American chestnut trees had perished. It has been considered the greatest tragedy in the history of American forestry.

"The devastation was so fast," said Lakoba, referring to "ghost forests."

Today, only a few rare specimens still survive to adulthood in the wild.