Bringing Back the American Chestnut Tree
By: Nate Potter
Updated: April 22, 2010
DUBOIS - Penn State DuBois students celebrated Earth Day by planting an American Chestnut Tree.
American Chestnut Trees were once part of Pennsylvania's forests. In 1904, a fungus was discovered in New York that choked and killed these trees. By the 1950s, almost all of them were destroyed.
The American Chestnut Association is working to bring back the iconic tree.
Scientists have now incorporated a gene from the Chinese Chestnut Tree. That genetic combination helps fight the deadly blight that nearly wiped out the American Chestnut Tree.
The tree that students planted on campus on Thursday should grow about one foot every year.
It's one of the first blight-resistant American Chestnut trees that the foundation has created.
A free seminar is being offered at Penn State DuBois Friday at 12pm about the comeback of the American Chestnut Tree.
For more information on the American Chestnut Foundation, visit their web site at http://www.acf.org/.
