By Jordan Schrader, USA TODAY
RALEIGH, N.C. — In sterile labs and under leafy canopies, scientists are taking steps they hope will bring back a majestic forest dweller nearly wiped out decades ago by a deadly fungus.
The 1,200 chestnut tree saplings planted in national forests in North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia last year are thriving, says Bryan Burhans, president of the American Chestnut Foundation.
In its heyday, the American chestnut tree helped build houses and barns and feed bears, deer and farmers' livestock across the eastern USA. It also stored carbon dioxide on an unmatched scale, which today would be a powerful weapon against climate change, Burhans says.
"People have forgotten how important and what a wonderful tree the chestnut was," said Ron Sederoff, professor of forestry at North Carolina State University. "It was one of the most important trees in the ecology of the Appalachian Mountains, and there were rural communities that depended on it. There was wildlife that depended on it. There were industries that depended on it."
"And when the blight came through, all of those things were lost."
more:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2009-10-19-American-chestnut-tree-blight-resistant-genetically-modified_N.htm?csp=34