A group of tree enthusiasts is taking painstaking care to protect and pollinate Columbia?s chestnut tree.
“Our job is to find the survivors, so we can bring them into the breeding program,” said Essie Burnworth, co-chairwoman of the Maryland Branch of the American Chestnut Foundation.
The foundation has hand-pollinated the flowers on the one tree on Harpers Farm Road, as part of an effort to replenish the delicate trees with a heartier strain.
American Chestnuts have languished since the introduction of the Asian Chestnut Tree caused a fungus ? known as blight ? to wipe out about 4 billion of the American trees across the East coast by 1950, according to the foundation?s Web site at www.acf.org.
The work is meticulous, as demonstrated by the 162 plastic bags carefully set on each of the tree?s flowers to prevent further pollination, Burnworth said.
In September, the group will return to collect the chestnuts, which they will later plant. The foundation then will grow several generations of the trees during about 30 years at the research farm in Meadowview, Va. They will blend them with the Asian Chestnut tree, which is immune to the blight.
If the work is successful, the foundation can attempt to reintroduce the more robust trees back into Maryland?s forests. This project is being done to try to restore the American Chestnut to its original proud form. They were once central to the economy and landscape of the East coast, spanning from Maine to Florida.
“A lot of it is nostalgia. There are still those of us alive who remember chestnut forests and trees,” Burnworth said.
The Columbia Association helped the organization by paying for a machine to lift people to the flowers on the tree for pollination and the placement of bags and redirecting traffic. “We think its a great way to let people know about some of the great resources we have on our open space,” said Jan Clark, Columbia Association landscape architect.
