Planting a comeback

Tuesday, May 8, 2007 3:38 AM

Until its decimation by chestnut blight, the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) was the premier forest tree of Eastern woodlands, accounting for up to 25 percent of the trees in its range.

• Range: 200 million acres of woodlands from Maine to Florida and western Virginia and North Carolina through the Ohio Valley to the Mississippi River.

• Height: 120 feet at maturity.

• Diameter: 10 to 15 feet at maturity. A tree in North Carolina was measured at 17 feet in diameter with a circumference of 53 feet.

• Uses: The wood is rot-resistant like redwood but easy to work, so it was good for furniture, building lumber, telegraph poles, fence posts and many other uses. The nuts were eaten by settlers and also were a major food source for wildlife.

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