EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second installment on efforts being undertaken to restore chinquapin trees to south Arkansas.
Even after the devastating loss of the vast majority of chestnut and chinquapin trees in the United States due to a fungus that was brought here from Asia in the early 1900s, efforts to recover the species were slow to begin. To understand the full scope of the die-off, and the environmental calamity it caused, it’s important to look at the numbers. Chestnuts and related chinquapins made up as much as one-third of the trees in eastern forests, and as many as three to four billion trees died as a result of the blight. One of the primary food sources for squirrels, deer, bears, and small mammals during the fall season was now gone, with nothing to replace it.
After years of attempting to breed a blight-resistant chestnut tree, a program operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture admitted failure and shut down in 1980. A corn geneticist by the name of Charles Burnham learned of the shutdown and, after reading the USDA report on the project, was shocked to find out that scientists had ignored a basic tenet of breeding disease resistance into crops.
The concept that was ignored is called backcrossing, which involves crossing the blight resistant Chinese chestnut with the American trees, then breeding successive generations of the crossbreed back to the American tree, thus winnowing out all the undesirable Chinese tree characteristics such as shrubby growth. The end result, if it were successful, would be a tree with almost all of the characteristics of the original American tree but with the blight resistance of the Chinese tree.
Burnham and several other scientists started the American Chestnut Foundation in 1983 to begin the process of backcrossing the chestnut tree. These efforts resulted in some success, and plantings throughout the native range of the chestnut have taken place over the past few years. Chestnut trees are growing again in areas where they thrived before, and some trees are showing blight resistance, although it’s still too early to tell if these trees will reach maturity. All these efforts, which also include weakening the fungus and importing a virus that attacks it, would apply to chinquapin tree restoration as well.
The success of the chestnut restoration program gave hope to those who were trying to restore the chinquapin, even though a program to return them to their past glory had yet to begin. A grant from the Northern Nut Growers Association in 2006 got the ball rolling on chinquapin restoration, providing needed funds to plant three orchards of Ozark chinquapins in southwestern Missouri for research purposes. That grant, along with the launch of the Ozark Chinquapin Initiative by The American Chestnut Foundation in 2007 and the start of the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation that same year, have all given impetus to the programs that seek the full restoration of the chinquapin tree to its native range.
According to “The Recovery Action Plan” on the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation website, these steps include:
• Find surviving trees
• Collect seed, pollen and grafts
• Preserve genetics
• Cross pollinate surviving trees
• Inoculate finished crosses with blight
• Science in genetics and hypovirulence
• Raise public awareness/outreach
• Raise money for project
• Dedicated location in and out of blight range
• Seed available to public for reintroduction
According to its website at www.ozarkchinquapin.com, membership is available by submitting a downloadable form from the site to the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation, P.O. Box 96, Purdy, Mo. 65734. One of the many benefits of membership listed is the availability of seed for reintroduction of the chinquapin tree in the wild. The organization is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and works with other natural resource agencies with the chinquapin restoration effort. Yearly membership is $30.00, and a lifetime membership is $300.00.
In Columbia County, a number of people who want to see the chinquapin tree return to its former glory are helping in the effort. Trees are now being planted in fields and wooded areas around the county, including trees that people hope could offer some resistance to the blight. Other related trees, such as the blight-resistant Chinese chestnut and the Allegheny chinquapin — one of two native chinquapin varieties — are also being planted.
Down in the Sharman Community, Brady Broom has been busy planting trees on land around his home and in the area. He also has small trees on his land that sprouted from the main stem of trees that were killed by the blight. The chances are good that these trees will succumb to the blight, too, but some hope is held out that a blight-resistant tree may naturally occur.
The process begins with chinquapin nuts being placed in a plastic bag with some damp mulch. Once the chinquapin nut sends out a root it is moved to a cone-shaped plastic container that has a small opening at the bottom that allows the root to grow into the ground. Once the root has taken hold, the cone is removed and the tree surrounded by a long plastic container or tube that protects it from the ravages of the squirrel and deer populations, both of which covet the sweet nuts.
The trees are planted in places where they can receive the proper sunlight, and after a couple of years will peep out of the top of the plastic tubes. At some point when the trees are able to thrive without the protection of the tubes, those are removed and the chinquapin trees are free to grow on their own. Right now a number of trees that have been planted over the past few years are doing well, though it’s still too early to know for sure whether they will survive the blight and live long term.
What we do know is that every tree planted gives the species a better chance to survive, with one or more of them possibly developing a natural resistance to the fungus. That is the belief of some scientists, that the tree will develop a resistance on its own as has happened to other trees in the past. That hope aside, others are not waiting for a natural solution but giving nature a helping hand.