11/18/2023 0 Comments 32 chestnut tree dr highland lakes nj![]() Below are selected quotations that reference chestnut and other species by some of the more important early explorers and naturalists in the Eastern United States. ![]() Nonetheless, these descriptions-particularly if they correspond with other available lines of evidence-provide valuable eyewitness accounts of eastern forests prior to their widespread modification by European settlement. Early written records must be used with caution, given that they were often written by non-botanists and provide a potentially biased assessment of previous forest conditions (Whitney 1994). ![]() Descriptions of chestnut by naturalists and explorers at the time of European settlement, on the other hand, are rarely cited. In fact, these sources reveal a very different story.Īccounts by Early Explorers and NaturalistsĪccounts by foresters about chestnut’s abundance at the turn of the twentieth century have been widely cited in the scientific and popular literature as evidence of the tree’s former dominance. Lucy Braun, are “those trees of the canopy, or superior arboreal layer, which numerically predominate.” Given American chestnut’s purported prior dominance in the eastern deciduous forest, we would expect the tree to have ranged widely across the East relative to other common tree species and to occupy a superior place in written accounts by early naturalists and explorers, early land survey records, forest surveys of the early twentieth century, and the paleoecological record. But was it really the dominant tree in the eastern forest?ĭominant species, in the words of forest ecologist E. ![]() The strength, straight grain, and decay resistance of its wood made it ideal for framing, finished lumber, and fencing, and its regular production of nuts provided abundant food for native and European peoples, domestic livestock, and diverse wildlife. It was among the fastest growing, tallest, and widest-trunked trees in the eastern United States. Just as the bison was the preeminent large mammal on the continent and the passenger pigeon the most abundant bird, so is chestnut often described as having dominated the eastern forest (or across its geographic range) prior to its destruction by an introduced Asian chestnut blight.īy all accounts chestnut was a magnificent and invaluable tree. “Chestnut was perhaps the most widespread and abundant species in the Eastern United States since the last glaciation.” USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station General Technical Report General Technical Report SRS-173 (2013)īefore the turn of the century, the eastern half of the United States was dominated by the American chestnut.” American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (2013)Īlong with the bison and the passenger pigeon, the American chestnut forms an iconic triumvirate of the grandeur of the American wilderness and the devastation that human activity wrought upon it over the past three centuries. “The American chestnut once comprised 25% or more of the Native Eastern Hardwood Forest.” American Scientist (1988)
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