The issues with the Darling 58 project had some good discussion here two weeks ago[0].<p>Tangentially: A distillery in Los Angeles, The Obscure, is making a rye whisky aged in American Chestnut barrels, with some of the proceeds going to the American Chestnut Foundation. It's quite good.<p>[0]<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38573765">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38573765</a>
The Chestnut, the Elm, the Ash.<p>I've lost much of my backyard since 2010 to Emerald Ash Borer. A listful view of industrial warehouses is my daily reminder that change is ever present and unavoidable.
Ahh the Chestnut, you can sit in a chestnut home roasting chestnuts on an an open fire burning on Chestnut wood.<p>It reminds me of the old saying, the axe with the wooden handle was welcomed in the forest because it convinced all the trees that it was one of them.
There are efforts to bring them back! Consider looking for local ones in your area and trying to support them. For example: <a href="https://www.sevendaysvt.com/food-drink/tree-farmer-buzz-ferver-aims-to-restore-the-american-chestnut-in-vermont-and-in-your-kitchen-39234863" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.sevendaysvt.com/food-drink/tree-farmer-buzz-ferv...</a>
"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose."<p>I was always struck how nobody roasts chestnuts anymore. Then I learned how some forests in the US had 25% chestnut trees and that blight killed almost all of them. What a fascinating thing that chestnuts were as common as acorns for our grandparents and great-grandparents but are almost non-existent for us.
Related:<p><i>TACF is no longer supporting development of D58 American chestnut trees</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38573765">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38573765</a> - Dec 2023 (58 comments)<p><i>The American chestnut tree is coming back. Who is it for?</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37576771">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37576771</a> - Sept 2023 (4 comments)<p><i>American chestnut tree in Centreville is the 'holy grail' for conservationists</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32621570">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32621570</a> - Aug 2022 (155 comments)<p><i>American chestnut</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30333498">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30333498</a> - Feb 2022 (73 comments)<p><i>The demise and potential revival of the American chestnut</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26441593">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26441593</a> - March 2021 (85 comments)<p><i>The demise and potential revival of the American chestnut</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26363660">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26363660</a> - March 2021 (1 comment)<p><i>Blight wiped out the American chestnut. Scientists are close to bringing it back</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21846891">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21846891</a> - Dec 2019 (2 comments)<p><i>American chestnut poised for return to America's forests</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13855137">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13855137</a> - March 2017 (1 comment)<p><i>American chestnut trees are “technically extinct”</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13478910">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13478910</a> - Jan 2017 (120 comments)
> An estimated 430 million of the trees can still be found in the forests of the American East. But more than 80 percent of these trees never grow past an inch or so in diameter.<p>It sounds so solvable. It must be hard to keep the wind-borne fungus spores from spreading. Guessing this fungus is everywhere.
We're losing chestnut trees in Turkey fast as well.<p>Causes:<p>- Phytophthora cambivora (ink disease)<p>- also by: P. cinnamomi, P. plurivora and P. cryptogea<p>- Cryphonectria parasitica (chestnut blight)<p>- gall wasp (Dryocosmus kuriphilus)<p>In Kastamonu and Sinop, modest success reported against blight in treated areas but I don't think the spread is easy to contain.<p>Need to note, blight suspected to have set foot in Turkey in 70s, started to become significant in 90s and now we're losing most. Chestnut has suddenly become hard to reach this year by additional effect of Gall wasp.
The Understory by Richard Powers is a beautiful novel that tells a part of the story of the chestnut tree and certainly deepened my appreciation for it.
> In the first half of the 20th century, a fungal disease called blight, inadvertently imported from Asia on trade ships, wiped out nearly all of the trees.<p>Global trade is destroying biodiversity across the entire planet. Most of us don't even realize all the ways in which our lives are made poorer by decreased biodiversity, which is why these kinds of articles are so good. But we're all acutely aware of not having the latest gadget. I wish more environmentalists talked about this.