The American chestnut, prized for its timber and its crop of glossy dark nuts, once dominated Eastern forests from Maine to Georgia. The graceful trees were virtually wiped out by blight starting at the turn of the 20th century.
That loss, Case said, “was the greatest environmental disaster in the Western Hemisphere since the Ice Age.”
Now, after years of breeding, cloning and crossbreeding, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is ready to reintroduce disease-resistant chestnuts to Eastern forests next year.
Maybe we’ll get the elms back, too.
UPDATE: Reader Greg Hlatky sends this link to elm-restoration efforts.