by Natasha Haverty
Todd and Nancy (click here) expect the tree to flower again at the end of June.
American chestnuts (click here) once made up a quarter of all the forest between Maine and Georgia. Animals depended on the tree for its fruit and humans used the wood. But at the beginning of the last century, a blight wiped out almost all of the chestnut trees. A few survive, including one specimen in upstate New York. The family that planted that tree 27 years ago enjoys its blooms each year at this time.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
American chestnut trees once made up a quarter of the forest between Maine and Georgia, but at the beginning of the last century, a blight wiped out almost all of them, an estimated four billion. Still, a few remain today, and reporter Natasha Haverty has the story of one pair a family planted in northern New York, in the town of Russell.
NATASHA HAVERTY, BYLINE: To get to the trees, we have to walk up a forest path.
TODD ALESSI: When you go and stand under it, you'll understand.
HAVERTY: Twenty-eight years ago, Todd and Nancy Alessi planted a couple of American chestnut seedlings a friend gave them on a whim. They knew nothing about the chestnut's past or how high the odds were stacked against their little seedlings. Today, the trees stand 60 feet tall.
T. ALESSI: So isn't it cool how it's like an umbrella?
HAVERTY: Hardly any sunlight makes it through their low electric-green canopy. They're in bloom right now, covered in flowers that look like blond pipe cleaners. Hundreds of bees hover up in the branches, coating their legs with pollen. If you listen, you can hear a hum like the trees are vibrating. Todd says these are the only chestnuts for miles in any direction.
T. ALESSI: The sad part of the blight wiping out all the trees was the fact that instead of waiting to see if any tree survived, people just assumed that they were all going to die and they cut them all down....
