Spring! And trees

It is finally starting to become warm and wonderful. New growth and rebirth is happening at last, and the cold of winter can fade into a distant memory for a few months. Spring means renewal and things coming "back to life" so to speak. Bringing things back to life can have different meanings, so what about bringing back something from extinction. 

Not necessarily animals this time; but an entire forest. Chestnut trees once numbered by the billions across the US. They were shelter, food, used for logs and just beautiful. Around 1904, it was noticed that the Bronx Zoo's chestnut tree was dying. It was discovered that the tree was infected by a fungus, and it spread throughout the US to almost all of the chestnut trees, decimating the once full forests. The Asian tree species seemed immune to the fungus that destroyed the chestnuts so quickly. Even today a cure for this fungus has not been found and continues to kill the new shoots of young chestnut trees. 

Scientists have started to "borrow" genes from the Asian version of the chestnut tree and insert them into the American chestnut. After much trial and error it seemed as though the fungus was being fought off. Even if the tree became infected, it seemed as though they could heal what the fungus had done to them. If this continues to be successful, it is hoped that chestnut trees could again be planted in the wild and survive. 

The article link below is worth reading and is extremely informative. There's a great diagram documenting the backcrossing experiments of the tree. It's amazing what science can do nowadays; it would be wonderful to have these trees come back

Resurrecting a Forest:
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/11/resurrecting-a-forest/