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American Chestnut trees from Monterey’s Meadow Creek Park are being used in a project to breed a blight resistant species.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Student Hannah Nelms is working on the American Chestnut Project. Nelms said she has taken samples from Monterey to the university’s greenhouse for its genetic make up.
“I’m originally from Cookeville,” Nelms said. “I went to Cookeville High School and lived a little closer to Monterey. My husband and I like to go out to Meadow Creek Park and climb and I noticed one day that I saw an American Chestnut.”
Nelms said trees from Cumberland Plateau were not represented in the project at the time. Nelms said she started working with her professor and Monterey officials to introduce the trees into the program.
“We like to source trees and find tress in the wild and bring them back to the greenhouse so we can include that genetic diversity into to the program,” Nelms said.
Nelms said the cuttings will be grafted onto a Chinese Chestnut, which are blight resistant. Nelms said the two species will continue to be crossed until a more timber like tree is produced.
“We set them out in sunlight and the trees think they are in the canopy and they will start to produce pollen in the greenhouse,” Nelms said. “I didn’t collect many, but I collected cuttings from a few trees.”
Nelms said American Chestnut began to dwindle in the early 1900’s. A fungus native to Asia that girdled the tree was introduced to America. By 1950, Nelm said most of the tress were killed.
Nelms said American Chestnuts survived the blight through stump sprouts. Nelms said the fungus may have killed a tree, but the root system remained alive.
The program comes through the American Chestnut Foundation in Ashville, North Carolina. Nelms said the UTC greenhouse is a part of the Tennessee chapter.
