For generations, American chestnut trees (Castanea dentata) fed people and wildlife throughout eastern North America. As many as four billion chestnut trees populated woodlands from northern Florida to southern Maine and west to the Mississippi River. These “Redwoods of the East Coast” filled the forest canopy, towering up to 100 feet with a girth of 9 feet around. They were an essential keystone species in the eastern U.S. and Canada.
Volunteers plant American chestnut seedlings in the Brunswick Town Commons last week. Dennis Wilson photo
Tragically, at the turn of the 20th century, ecological disaster struck. A fungal pathogen accidentally introduced from Asia swept through killing entire forests of American chestnuts. Nearly every wild American chestnut tree across 300,000 square miles died. The economic loss rose to hundreds of millions of dollars. Today, the American chestnut is listed as an endangered species in Canada and as a species of special concern in Maine.
In recent years, millions of dollars have been invested to perfect genetically modified, blight-resistant chestnut varieties. Some scientists have been crossing resistant Chinese and Japanese chestnuts with vulnerable American chestnuts. Others are inoculating trees or using DNA sequencing to ensure trees that may be introduced into the wild are resistant. The American Chestnut Foundation has a network of breeding, seed and germplasm conservation orchards, including 20 in Maine. Backcrossing transgenics and introducing the modified trees into wild woods has both strong supporters and opponents. A few months ago, due to poor performance first noted by Maine researchers, ACF withdrew its support for one of the largest transgenic chestnut projects, which involves inserting a wheat gene into the American chestnut genome.
There is an alternative to planting GMO trees. Some surviving pure American chestnuts have been found in the wild. In Maine, the American Chestnut Foundation and FEDCO are making available seedlings grown from seeds sourced from trees that are hardy and suited to the state’s climate.
According to the Maine Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, “Maine is currently home to more mature, flowering wild American chestnuts than any other state. Their success is due primarily to Maine’s geographic isolation from the denser populations of chestnut trees south of us, where the fungus spreads more readily. … By growing chestnuts from wild trees, the Maine Chapter is preserving genes that have helped the chestnut adapt to life at the cooler edge of its range.”
For the past three years, volunteers from the Brunswick Town Commons Committee have joined the town srborist to plant wild-type chestnut seedlings in the Brunswick Town Commons as part of an ongoing restoration project. Growing wild-type American chestnut seedlings helps preserve genetic diversity within the species for future breeding and wild adaptation. So far, of five dozen chestnut seedlings planted in the Town Commons, about half have survived, a hopeful sign.
A volunteer helps plant chestnut seedlings at the Brunswick Town Commons last week. Jym St. Pierre photo
In 1958, Louis J. Lipovsky and his wife, Mary, moved to Maine where Mary had been a Brunswick High School graduate. She worked as a nurse in Bath, but she was best known as the African Violet Lady for the flowers she sold at their Lipovsky Gardens on Casco Road in Brunswick.
For 15 years, from 1962–1977, Louis worked in the Entomology Division of the Maine Forest Service. He became an entomologist of national prominence. After retiring, he served as tree warden for the Town of Brunswick. That’s probably when he planted a number of American chestnuts in the Town Commons in an effort to keep the species alive. Some of the trees he planted have succumbed to the blight, but a number have survived and are still producing nuts.
The goal of recovering the surviving chestnut trees planted by Louis Lipovsky and the planting of new seedlings is the rescue of American chestnuts from the brink of extinction. Scientists estimate that globally, 30%–51% of tree species are threatened with extinction. Tree species collapse can lead to the loss of many other plants and animals and significantly alter ecosystems. The chestnuts in the Brunswick Town Commons represent an important effort at biodiversity restoration and at recovering a crucially important tree species in North America — indeed, in the world.
The Brunswick Town Commons is one of the most popular and historic public open spaces in town. Friends of the Brunswick Town Commons is a volunteer group that supports stewardship of the Brunswick Town Commons. To join, see brunswickme.gov/DocumentCenter/View/8859/Friends-of-the-Brunswick-Town-Commons-Sign-up-Form.
Jym St. Pierre is a member of the Brunswick Town Commons Committee.
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