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Chestnuts 2019
- 1. Lessons from FourYears of Chasing the Wild American Chestnut, Castanea dentata ESA Mid-Atlantic Chapter April 2019
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- 4. The 2018 fieldseason was my fourth studying Castanea dentata (American chestnut). This was the last field season I plan to focus on this tree before moving on to other phytoecology issues as there is not much more to learn. Over the last 4 years I walked the Appalachian Trail from the Delaware Water Gap to Wertzville Road on the west side of the Susquehanna River, along with parts of other trails such as the Darlington Trail, the Conestoga Trail, the Tuscarora Trail and numerous smaller trails and documented over 10,000 stems with numerous fertile ones. My remaining goal is to grow C. dentata trees from the seedlings and saplings in our yard through two generations. This presentation is a summary of what I learned.
- 5. 2018 summary 21 fertilechestnuts counted in 2018 on the AT and service road with related trails in SGL110 between Rt. 183 and the end of the service road where the AT goes to Port Clinton 502 total chestnut stems counted in 2018 in SGL110 on the AT and service road with related trails between Rt. 183 and Port Clinton
- 6. https://www.google.com/maps/@40.5816733,-75.8922575,9.5z, accessed 2/1/2019 XOur home Area of most intense research The focus of my documentation over the last several years was the Appalachian Trail within a reasonable drive from home, @ 130 miles. The area of most intense research is an area I walk weekly and know best. This is a 14 mile stretch of the AT along the ridge of Blue Mountain from just west of Rt. 183 to near Port Clinton and at least twice that in total trails mostly, but not exclusively, along the ridgeline. This is where I focused this past year.
- 7. In four fieldseasons I have chased C. dentata over thousands of miles on trails and dirt roads, through forests and across fields. In that time I have logged with a GPS equipped camera at least 10,500 C. dentata trunks and found close to 100 fertile trees. These are the lessons I learned: 1. C. dentata is not in danger of going extinct from the blight. 2. To produce seeds mature C. dentata only needs sunlight on the apical ends of its branches. 3. No matter how much a hybrid is back-crossed it is still a non-native plant and will cause problems for native specialists including extinction. 4. C. dentata is still getting blight, but many trees grow through the blight to reproduce. 5. There is a vibrant community of pollinators on C. dentata flowers. 6. When there is a break in the forest canopy C. dentata grows through it. 7. Age of C. dentata and onset of blight do not appear to be related. 8. Trails are refuges for C. dentata. 9. Reservoirs are refuges for C. dentata. 10. Scientists are as much like sheep and as gullible as anyone else – they often do not put on their shoes to check if a doctrine is true.
- 8. Scientists who acceptdoctrines without verifying them.
- 9. My goal isto grow several C. dentata from seeds through two fertile generations.
- 10. One our favoritetrees and the most visited: DBH Nov. 8, 2017 = 11.1” height Oct. 29, 2017 = 37’, 36’
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- 17. Growing into thecanopy
- 18. Due to thehuge number of assaults our native forests are taking from pollution, diseases, pests and invasive plants which create holes in the forest canopy my experience and expectation is that C. dentata will again become a dominant part of our forests without our interference.
- 21. Several years after theFrench Creek forest fire of April 2012
- 22. Pollinators, flowers, burrsand nuts
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- 38. This tree wasa seedling on the AT which I rescued from trail maintainers in 2014. It is now 60 inches tall.
- 40. Trees along trailsand dirt roads in the gamelands near home
- 53. Leaf borer, aproblem for natives and hybrids
- 55. Native vs non-native(hybrid)
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- 60. One future projectI want to do if I can find collaborators is to talk about “mad” scientists, such as Sir Isaac Newton, and our contribution to Science.
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