American chestnut (Castanea dentata)

Our relationship to American chestnut, a functionally extinct species, is only beginning. The trees are killed by chestnut blight, a fatal fungal infection, before reaching maturity. We’ve observed small chestnut trees sprouting from dead stumps throughout the Catskills and Shawangunks for the past several years. Currently, we are identifying chestnut trees which have recently succumbed to blight, the largest of which are 20-30 feet high and up to 4 inches in diameter. 

The prevalence of stump sprout growth in White ash trees killed by EAB have us thinking that an understanding of the historic American chestnut collapse might provide an interesting point of comparison.

Field Notes

Stump sprouts are the only way American chestnut trees appear in our forests today. By most accounts, the specimens we find have been sprouting from the same living root mass since the mature trees collapsed 100 years ago.

We harvested wood from a recently deceased chestnut tree, and counted 25 rings in the bole we collected. The live sprouts growing off the same root were much smaller than the dead one. If the rate of growth is relatively consistent, then comparison suggests that these living saplings are no more than 10 years old and most are much younger. 

We are currently watching a particularly large tree, approaching 6 inches in diameter at the base in hopes that it will drop seeds this Fall.  As of late June there were no flowers on this tree.

Forms and methods

Carving our harvested chestnut is easy, though delicate and susceptible to tearout. We noticed this at points where the grain orientation changes (like the transition between the neck and bowl of a spoon). 

We plan to source historical lumber and test potential for additive sculpting/fabrication.