American chestnut trees were once called the redwoods of the East, the kings of the forest.

Tall, stately and majestic, the woodland giants dominated forests from Maine to Alabama, stretching west into the Great Lakes region and Ohio Valley.

Many topped 100 feet in height and were up to 8 feet in diameter. They flowered in the spring and the leaves turned golden in the fall.

They provided food to settlers and wildlife with their nuts. Their hardwood was widely used in cabins, barns, fences and furniture.

American chestnuts accounted for up to 20 percent of the trees growing in northern Ohio forests.

Then they were pushed to the brink of extinction.

The American chestnut was virtually wiped out in Ohio in the 1920s and 1930s, the victim of a fungus from Asia.

The blight from Asian chestnut trees was discovered in New York City in 1904. The orange-tinged cankers destroyed 31/2 billion American chestnuts in the eastern United States in the decades that followed. By 1950, the giants were all but gone.

Now, there is hope that the American chestnut will make a comeback — although the process could take thousands of volunteers and perhaps a century to complete.

''It may be the biggest ecological restoration ever undertaken in the United States — and maybe in the world,'' said Bryan Burhans, chief executive of the American Chestnut Foundation, a grass-roots organization headquartered in North Carolina.

With the help of volunteers in Ohio and across the country, his group is gradually changing the genetics, and recent results suggest there may be hope for the once grand tree.

Among those aiding the effort is Brian McCarthy, a forest ecology professor at Ohio University and a leader in the foundation's Ohio chapter.

''How often do you get to reintroduce a species that was all but lost?'' he asked.

The national group is experimenting with ways to refine the American chestnut genetics. Its Ohio group is doing double duty: working to keep the all-Ohio American chestnut alive and, in cooperation with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, using the trees to reclaim acidic strip-mined lands in Ohio.

''It's a really exciting time,'' McCarthy said. ''Restoring the American chestnut is an important project and a worthwhile project. . . . A lot is happening and we're getting close.''

Re-emergent trees

Remnants of the tree are being monitored and, in some cases, nurtured in Northeast Ohio.

Some of the trees that died decades ago sent out underground shoots that have been long dormant. They re-emerge, but often die, as the bark begins to crack at eight to 10 years and the blight finds a place to attack.

There were six known trees in the Summit park system, according to biologist Rob Curtis of Metro Parks, Serving Summit County, until two in Sand Run park died last year. One had reached about 40 feet.

Park officials considered spraying a re-emergent tree in Munroe Falls Metro Park with a fungicide to help it survive, but accessibility problems made that impossible, he said.

But such spraying has been used in the Cleveland area, where Cleveland Metroparks staffers and volunteers have identified 280 re-emergent trees, spokesman Rick Tyler said.

The Cleveland system was going to experiment with cross-pollination last year, but the trees were attacked by insects and became too weak to produce enough flowers.

He said the best solution for park districts is simple: ''Find a way to make our trees resistant. . . . Do that and we'd be very happy.''

The challenge

Creating the resistant tree is the challenge to Burhans' 5,000-member American Chestnut Foundation, with chapters in Ohio and 16 other states.

The foundation began its work in 1983 and has invested $17 million toward that goal.

''All the different approaches are important because there's still a lot we don't know,'' said Greg Miller, a volunteer and nursery operator in Carroll County, east of Canton. ''We have to keep our options open. I'm convinced that it's going to work, and there's a lot of scientific evidence that verifies that. What we'll likely end up with is Version 1.0. We hope it will be as good as hypothesized. ''

When cross-pollinated with the squat Chinese chestnut, they can resist the blight. They are then repeatedly rebred with pollen from the pure and statelier American chestnut, making each generation slightly more American. It is a time-consuming process, because the new tree must grow two to four years before it begins to flower, and nuts can be produced, harvested and planted again.

Each generation is inoculated with blight and screened for resistance, and only the most resistant trees are used in future crosses.

What has been developed is a tree that is 15/16 American chestnut and 1/16 Chinese chestnut with blight resistance. That means the developing hybrid is 94 percent American chestnut and almost indistinguishable from the original, except for its new antifungal hardiness from its 6 percent Chinese chestnut stock.

The first of those ''15/16 trees'' were produced in 2004-05. About 4,000 were produced last year, according to Burhans.

About 500 of the 15/16 trees — dubbed B3F3s — will be planted this spring on six U.S. Forest Service plots in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia to continue testing, he said.

The researchers also have speeded the process by getting the 15/16 trees to flower and nut in two to four years, not the six to 10 years it previously took.

Getting the American chestnut restored across 188 million acres will be a huge undertaking, Burhans said.

It probably will be 20 to 30 years before the 15/16 trees are widely available to the general public, and 50 to 100 years before their growth is widespread across the country, he said. That effort will require countless volunteers.

Restoration project

Some of the efforts are nearby.

David Lytle, chief of the Ohio Division of Forestry and Ohio's state forester, is working with the foundation's Ohio chapter to preserve the genetic stock of this region's native American chestnuts. That's a necessity, because trees from Ohio might not do well in North Carolina or Tennessee, and American chestnuts from those states might not thrive in Ohio.

Last year, a small state-run American chestnut nursery was started in the Mohican-Memorial State Forest in Ashland County. The goal is to keep producing and harvesting nuts to keep the Ohio trees' germ plasm — its genetic material — alive.

''The restoration is an important project and something that will add diversity, health and economic potential to our forests,'' Lytle said.

About 260 American chestnut seedlings from Ohio and surrounding states — no hybrids — are a part of the planting, manager Tim Humphrey said.

The trees will be used to cultivate seeds for breeding programs, he said.

Focus on survival

Meanwhile, foundation volunteers in Ohio are experimenting with ways to strengthen the native tree and help it survive.

The volunteers are working with remnants of the pure, all-Ohio American chestnut — even though those trees probably are doomed to die of the blight.

Miller of Carroll County, who owns and operates Empire Chestnut Co., and others have been grafting branches from surviving American chestnut trees to hybrid roots to develop native trees that can produce nuts that will create future generations.

Some of those cuttings are coming from a clump of surviving American chestnut trees found near Newton Falls in Trumbull County. The trees, growing in a quarry atop a knoll, were discovered in 2006 and appear to have avoided the blight.

The volunteers also pollinate flowering American chestnuts with blight-resistant pollen from foundation farms. They rely on lift trucks and ladders to reach the flowers, which are covered with plastic bags and carefully labeled and monitored.

At an appropriate time, the flowers are uncovered and artificially pollinated with the select pollen, then rebagged so that no airborne pollen can invade the flower.

McCarthy's group, working with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, has planted native Ohio and hybrid American chestnut seedlings on two state wildlife areas in east-central Ohio and in the Wayne National Forest in southern Ohio.

Hybrid trees will help pollinate native American chestnut trees, continuing the process of creating a more fungus-resistant stock.

The large number of plantings in eastern Ohio also represents the first significant attempt at this method of reclaiming mine land, McCarthy said.

The American chestnut can grow in poor, acidic soils, and that makes it a good candidate for Ohio's barren, reclaimed strip mines, which total 35,000 acres, he said.

Some concerns

While many who are working on the revitalization project are optimistic, Bob Stehli, a commercial chestnut grower in Portage County, isn't convinced that even the 15/16 trees can be returned to the forest successfully.

Stehli, of Wintergreen Tree Farm, said he fears that those trees will encounter additional diseases and insect pests that will make the return problematic.

''It will take a super hybrid to survive because of the pathogens and pests,'' he said. ''What they're doing may not work . . . but I don't want to burst anyone's bubble.''

Stehli, 55, knows something about chestnuts. He has 12,000 hybrid and Chinese chestnuts on 40 acres in Hiram and Mantua townships in Portage County, and in Ashtabula and Ashland counties. He has collected as many as 10,000 pounds of nuts to sell. He also has his own acre plot of pure American chestnut seedlings.

Burhans, of the foundation, acknowledges that there is still much work to do, but remains undaunted.

''We're close. We're on the cusp. But we're not quite there yet,'' Burhans said. ''But you've just got to believe.''

Efforts to save American chestnut trees
POSTED: 12:52 p.m. EDT, May 04, 2009

NATIONAL LEADER

The American Chestnut Foundation is a nonprofit group, mostly of volunteers who are experimenting with tree genetics to develop a hybrid American chestnut resistant to the Asian blight. Primary foundation research is on four farms with more than 47,000 trees on 153 acres in Meadowview, Va.

More information: American Chestnut Foundation, 160 Zillicoa St., Suite D, Asheville, NC 28801; 828-281-0047; http://www.acf.org.

OHIO EFFORTS

• An Ohio affiliate of the foundation, led by Ohio University ecology professor Brian McCarthy, is working with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to plant native Ohio and hybrid American chestnut seedlings on two state wildlife areas in east-central Ohio and in the Wayne National Forest in southern Ohio.

The project is coupled with efforts to reclaim mined land, which is a good match for the trees' preference for acidic soils.

Planted: About 7,000 native and hybrid seedlings at Jockey Hollow Wildlife Management Area in Harrison and Belmont counties and 1,200 at the Tri-Valley Wildlife Management Area in Muskingum County. Another 3,600 trees were planted in the last two years in the Wayne National Forest.

Another 260 native American chestnut seedlings have been planted in a protected nursery in the Mohican-Memorial State Forest to produce seeds and pollen for research and development.

More information: The Ohio chapter can be found at: http://www.oh-acf.org.

LOCAL SPECIMENS

Growth from long-dormant underground shoots has been found in Sand Run and Munroe Falls metro parks.

Two in Sand Run — including one that had reached 40 feet — died last year before either could be sprayed with a fungicide. Park officials considered spraying a re-emergent tree in Munroe Falls park this year, but that was killed by access problems.

Cleveland Metroparks successfully sprayed 23 of its 280 re-emergent trees. Most are in the Brecksville, Bedford, and North and South Chagrin reservations, where the American chestnut once thrived, spokesman Rick Tyler said.

Some of the 23 treated trees flowered but produced no nuts. The park system had planned a controlled pollination in 2008, but wasp galls damaged their health and required treatment of an insecticide.

American chestnut tree characteristics
POSTED: 12:48 p.m. EDT, May 04, 2009

• Height: 60 to 80 feet is common; up to 100 feet.

• Trunk diameter: 3 to 4 feet is common; up to 10 feet.

• Shape: Tall, straight trunk free of limbs; small head.

• Wood: Soft and durable. Historically, it was used for lumber, cabins, fencing.

• Bark: On young trees, it is smooth and reddish brown. On older trees, it is dark brown and fissured with broad, scaly ridges.

• Leaves: Dark green above and paler below. The leaves can be up to 10 inches long and 2 inches wide. They are narrow at the base, taper pointed, sharply toothed and smooth on both sides.

• Flowers: Small and creamy yellow. They appear in catkins up to 8 inches long. The fruit is a light brown burr with spines on the outside and hair on the inside. The burr opens at first frost and drops nuts. The nuts are sweet and a good food source. Wildlife relied on the nuts.

Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.