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TOPIC: The Blue Ridge Parkway Destination Center's American Chestnut
Display.
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/167d54e01d309cc7?hl=en
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Mon, Oct 20 2008 4:05 pm
From: James Parton
Fellow Ents,
The Blue Ridge Parkway has a new Destination Center near Asheville
NC that has a major display dedicated to the American Chestnut tree.
In fact it is the dominant attraction in the building. It gives
basic info on the tree and it's contribution to American History and
it's demise to the blight. Even the Hemlock's peril is mentioned for
comparison. It is a cool display even though the artificial nuts in
the display look more Chinese in size than American. It even has an
artificial chestnut limb complete with leaves.
It is a shame that this is the closest many people will ever get to
an American Chestnut, not realizing that they still exist, even if
at a reduced state. The chestnut trees of Mt. Pisgah are mentioned
here, which is a really good place to view living trees in
number.
http://carolinas-tacf.org/newsletters/Carolinas_Newsletter_Spring_2008-1..pdf
James P
==============================================================================
TOPIC: The Blue Ridge Parkway Destination Center's American Chestnut
Display.
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/167d54e01d309cc7?hl=en
==============================================================================
== 1 of 2 ==
Date: Wed, Oct 22 2008 3:26 pm
From: Matthew Hannum
James:
That looks like a very nice exhibit, though I we didn't need such a
memorial and that the chestnuts were still with us in their former
glory.
I took my parents to a local park over the weekend and showed them a
few American Chestnut trees, including one that stood about 20+ feet
tall. I can safely say that they have never seen any member of this
species alive since the Blight had basically destroyed the tree by
WWII. It was a bittersweet moment since that one, sad little tree is
merely a shadow of what once was... and even it had some signs of
the
Blight (loosening bark, deformations in the truck, etc.)
If it were just the American Chestnut we had lost, it would be bad
enough, but the Hemlocks are vanishing, the Ash trees of all kinds
are
disappearing, and other exotic threats loom, such as Beech Bark
Disease, various Oak illinesses, the Asian Longhorn Beetle, various
pests in the conifers out west, and so on. At least one can buy DED
resistant Elm trees these days, and hopefully within 10 years or so,
Blight resistant American Chestnuts will be available to the public
for reasonable prices. I just wish humanity wasn't destroying
species
(trees or otherwise) faster than we're able to come up with ways to
correct our mistakes.
Anyway, nice exhibit and one well worth seeing since most people
tend
to think of extinct or nearly extinct species as "things in the
distant past" like mammoths, etc. The loss of the American
Chestnut is
an eye-opener for many, I am sure.
== 2 of 2 ==
Date: Wed, Oct 22 2008 4:45 pm
From: James Parton
Matthew,
I would love to talk to someone old enough to remember the chestnut
in
its former pre-blight glory. Unfortunantly that person would be well
up in years. Probably in the 90s.
JP
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