“My apologies to Mr. Steinbeck”
In my post of 09/28/09, I related my childhood experiences with the end of the wild American Chestnut in SE Ohio hill country. In that post, I made this reference,
“. . . 1 of every 4 trees in the Appalachians. I heard the stories: nuts shoveled out of wagons heaped high from a day’s picking. Hogs let loose in the woods for a month, only to be lured back into the sty with corn and buttermilk for butchering, well larded from the excess calories. Fox squirrels moving across the trees in herds so large that it sounded like thunder. As told, my great grandfather would shoot squirrel by the hundreds and hang them in the well house to feed his family for most of the winter! Tree trunks bigger than wagons, were cut and split in the woods for mine timbers and cross members, barn beams and joists, fence posts and railroad ties that would never rot! A total eco-system and lifestyle based upon one tree; and by 1940, all but disappeared due to the Chestnut Blight.”
When the Depression began, the chestnut blight was in full swing. Until a few months ago, I never thought of the wide scale social/economic/environmental impacts created by the loss of the chestnut tree. Was it as damaging, more far-reaching in human terms than the Dust Bowl? Was the loss of the chestnut contributory to the deprivation and suffering of millions in the 30’s. It surely produced more hardship than the inflated cost of roasted Christmas chestnuts on the streets of Philadelphia, New York City and Boston!
With the chestnut loss, a major source of food production was lost to man and animal. The forest ecosystem was radically altered in 20 years! In the Appalachians, those affected by the chestnut demise had seen multiple generations on the same land, doing life in the same way. Surely, the airplane, the auto and rural electrification altered life in the 30’s but for millions of country folk in the mountain regions of the eastern United States, a way of life was lost. The scale of this loss could have been far greater and more grievous than in all of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
Currently, a number of “blight” resistant chestnut hybrids are being sold over the internet. There is purported to be the “final” hybrid of blight resistant American Chestnut, which will be released to the public within the next several years.
In 1940 the chestnut was, for the most part, gone in the eastern United States. Will it and its positive economic/environmental advantages be back and thriving in 2040?
