Saving the American chestnut: A story of renewal, regrowth and hope Science and community are uniting to rescue Appalachia's legendary tree species — unless it's rescuing us ...

‘America’s tree’ is missing. Will we do what it takes to bring it back? Genetic modification is the only credible path to restoring the blight-wracked American chestnut.

A blight-resistant chestnut tree developed by researchers at SUNY ESF is moving forward in its review by the USDA.

The American chestnut tree, or číhtkęr in Tuscarora, once grew across what is currently the eastern United States, from Mississippi to Georgia, and into southeastern Canada.

The fungus would grow in wounds in the tree bark, causing blisters that blocked the flow of sap and slowly killed the trees. By 1929, a healthy American chestnut became a rare sight.

The fungus would grow in wounds in the tree bark, causing blisters that blocked the flow of sap and slowly killed the tree. By 1929, a healthy American chestnut became a rare sight.

The goal of this "assisted migration" experiment is to see if humans could not only help the American chestnut tree deal with climate change but also help restore it.

All over eastern North America right now, chestnut breeders are pollinating tree flowers. "So here is actually some flowers," Retired forester John Scrivani explains. They’re beautiful.

Once a towering presence in northeastern forests, the American Chestnut is making a quiet comeback in Brooklyn.

Signs of beech bark disease on the bark of an American beech tree. It is one of five species in the region that have been severely affected by invasives in recent decades.

Lumber, shelter, delicious nuts—there was nothing the American chestnut couldn’t provide.

The chestnut blight is a fungus accidentally brought to North America on imported Asiatic trees in the late 1800s, and it’s devastated our wild American species, rendering it functionally extinct.