There is no substitute for a day in the woods but this winter I confess I have spent more time indoors than usual.
This week I stayed indoors but was completely immersed in the forest due to a great resource I explored online called ForestConnect.
ForestConnect is a program run by Peter Smallidge, state extension forester with Cornell Cooperative Extension. ForestConnect's mission is to provide accessible education on sustainable production and forest ecology to woodlot owners but also foresters, loggers and elected officials. Topics cover a wide range including timber tax, forest pests and stumpage prices. Most publications can be downloaded at no cost.
ForestConnect offers free webinars once a month on the third Wednesday at noon and again at 7 p.m. By attending a webinar when it is happening you can interact with the presenter and other participants, but the presentations are archived so you can view them at any time.
This week I viewed a webinar on restoring the American chestnut. One of my earliest memories of wood is from the house my great-grandfather built in the late 1800s in Massachusetts. I remember the soft, brown chestnut paneling that lined the living room wall. In the house there was a staircase my aunt told me was made entirely of chestnut wood. She said chestnut trees had surrounded the house when it was built but none were left.
Although I am at least two generations from the last healthy chestnut trees, after watching the webinar by Bryan Burhans, president of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF), I can visualize the "mighty giants" and how different the forest must have been when there were chestnuts in the mix.
The eastern Adirondacks would have been at the outer edge of chestnut's native range but as chestnut prefers high, dry sites, it's possible the Champlain Hills could have hosted some. These trees were magnificent — they grew quickly, produced straight-grained, rot-resistant wood and yielded enormous mast for wildlife and for human food. Chestnut was a keystone species — one that had a huge impact on the entire surrounding ecosystem. TACF refers to them as "mighty giants." As the story goes, the trees succumbed to a devastating blight that came from an Asian fungus that killed nearly every chestnut tree in North America within 40 years.
Smallidge refers to it as "our nation's worst ecological disaster."
Because chestnuts were so important to humans and to forest systems, TACF (www.acf.org) has spent years trying to re-establish the species through an amazing genetic journey. They have developed chestnut seedlings that are 1516 American with 1/16 of the genetic material of Asian chestnuts. Now there are orchards of apparently fungus-resistant trees.
The partnerships that have made chestnut restoration possible include several forestry schools, the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Smithsonian's Museum of American History, and countless individual volunteers and donors.
The ForestConnect webinar tells the whole story, but in January, when it is time to look ahead and be hopeful, I am following chestnut restoration.
Elizabeth Lee is a licensed guide who lives in Westport. She leads recreational and educational programs focused in the Champlain Valley throughout the year. Contact her at lakeside5047@gmail.com.
