Correspondent
Growing up we heard about the chestnut tree in literature, heard it in Christmas songs, and some may remember, in places like New York City, street vendors selling roasted chestnuts. It was common to see chestnut trees in the wild and it was part of American life. They survived for 40 million years and died out within 40 years. In north-eastern America, there were three billion trees and 25 percent of the trees in the Appalachian Mountains were chestnut but the number of surviving trees 24” in diameter is now fewer than 100.
“The chestnut trees, once a dominant tree of the Eastern deciduous forest, had been decimated by a blight in the early 1900s. Their nuts were a valuable source of food for wildlife and humans, while the wood was highly prized with its rot-resistant quality as well as strength. It was used for railroad ties, telegraph poles, etc.,” said Walter Hussey, a master naturalist. “The American Chestnut Foundation (ACF) and the Virginia Department
The American Chestnut Returns to Stamford Written by Lizzy Zawy Public Relations
The American Chestnut Returns to Stamford
Stamford Land Trust and the American Chestnut Foundation plant chestnut trees
On Friday, May 14th, the Stamford Land Conservation Trust (“SLCT”) will plant chestnut seedlings in partnership with The American Chestnut Foundation. The Stamford Land Conservation Trust and the Connecticut Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation are working together to try and restore American chestnut trees (Castanea dentata) to Connecticut s forests. Chestnuts used to comprise approximately 25-40% of the forests in CT but a foreign fungal blight brought them to the brink of extinction.
Food has the power to connect us to past generations sometimes across hundreds of years of history.
Just over a century ago, a wave of Lebanese immigrants flowed into Appalachia. They left their families and homes in the Middle East, and traveled to cities like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Roanoke, Virginia and Wheeling, West Virginia in search of jobs and economic opportunity. They brought a rich culture that flourished and also a vitality to the places they settled.
But now, generations have passed, and Appalachia’s Lebanese communities are seeing a familiar dynamic as young people move out and older generations pass on.