In 1909 a scaly, blistery band was observed on a small chestnut tree standing near, the east side of Glendale Road, close to the Wilbraham-Hampden town line. Experts from the State and Federal Departments of Agriculture came to examine it. The fungus of this disease, which is wind-borne, had its first known victim in Massachusetts. Since the surface of the tree is vulnerable to the white-tendriled parasite, birds aided the wind in this mass destruction. Efforts to control this disease were futile. By the end of World War I, there were thousands of chestnut skeletons scattered all over town.
The beginning of the end came in the late 1800s when Asian chestnut trees carrying a microscopic fungus were imported to nurseries in the United States. American chestnuts had no resistance to the fungus, which caused cankers that girdled the bark and killed trees. The chestnut blight was first discovered in 1904 at the Bronx Zoo in New York and steadily spread across the great chestnut forests, destroying nearly every tree in its path. The loss of the American chestnut was an American tragedy, described by an ecologist as the worst environmental disaster ever to strike our country.” At one time 25% of the forests in Massachusetts were made up of American chestnut trees while our neighbors in Connecticut were 50%.
This blight has had such a decided effect on the appearance of this town as well as on its past farming economy. These trees were very abundant east of the Mississippi River from Georgia to Maine. It was once said that a squirrel could climb a chestnut tree in Georgia and travel from chestnut tree branch to chestnut tree branch to Maine without even stepping on the ground.
Before the blight, the land on the hillsides of Wilbraham was quite evenly covered with stands of this tree. The nuts were food for the Native Americans, for wildlife, and an ingredient of old-time favorite Thanksgiving and Christmas recipes. The straight-grained, rot-resistant trunks were of excellent quality; many of the buildings of the town were built partly of chestnut. On the farm, it was especially important because of its ability to resist rot and insect damage, which made it so desirable for snake-rail fences and later for posts in wire fences. Railroads used it for ties and bridge builders sought beams and planking of chestnut.
The tree grew rapidly. Several town farmers sold chestnuts, particularly in the form of railroad ties. Economically, this cash product was to some the difference between the success or failure of the farming year.
The chestnut commonly grew in clumps of six to eight around a parent stump. They would grow very straight to heights of 75 to 100 feet and trunks as wide as 10 feet in diameter. This contributed to its desirability as a utility pole. Practically all of the early telephone telegraph and electric lines were strung on chestnut poles.
Today, thanks to science, a comeback for American chestnuts is now possible. The American Chestnut Foundation is seeking to restore the tree to its native range using a three-pronged strategy it calls “3BUR: Breeding, Biotechnology and Bio-control, United for Restoration.”
Llewellyn Merrick and Richard Hoffman, who are on the Board of Directors of the American Chestnut Foundation, started a joint venture to bring back more of the American chestnut trees to town. They planted a stand of trees on the Merrick farm back in 2004. This was the first crossbreed tree that carried genes from the Chinese Chestnut, which was immune to the blight. All but six of these trees are 50% American and 50% Chinese. The remainder of the trees are American chestnuts which are showing the effects of the blight.
The root systems of the American chestnut are still intact in our forests. The blight does not affect them. It's only when the tree is young that the blight starts its process to kill the tree.
The tornado back in 2011 had a positive effect on many young chestnut trees. The other trees which dominated the landscape were wiped out creating space for these young trees to grow. A few of them are adult trees now that are producing nuts. These trees can be found in the wooded area to the West of the high school. It will take many years for the American chestnut to make a return in numbers due to the help of science and people who care deeply for this tree.
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