Bringing back the Chestnut, and literary references

[Rob Halpern]

Trace One,
While this is not a literary connection (perhaps more a literal connection), when I worked at the Bronx Zoo, I did some research in the archives into the initial discovery of chestnut blight which occurred at the zoo. The photographs of the century old chestnut trees on the property astounded me! No oak of the Northeastern forests could outshine them.

[Trace One]

Cool, Rob, would love to see those pix, I didn’t know it was discovered at the good old BRONX ZOO, right down from my dad’s house!..
We can’t imagine what america looked like, when covered with the old growth forests..there’s a cool patch of 300 year old maples in Nova Scotia, preserved, but it is in a dip in the island, in the middle, so the Maples put their efforts to growing tall – it is a very very tall stand of trees..Still pretty exciting..

: )

[Rob Halpern]

Sadly the blight can be reasonably traced to a shipment of Japanese Chestnuts to a nursery in the Rochester area. Some went to the NY Botanic Garden (among other places). It was the zoo’s Chief Forester (as the grounds manager was then titled) that first noticed die back of the zoo’s American chestnuts and sent samples to Washington for i.d…..and so it began.
I know the pictures have appeared somewhere in print but I don’t remember where!

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