Lecture series goes out on a limb discussing reviving the American Chestnut tree
ELKINS, W.Va. (WBOY) — The Kump Education Center in Elkins welcomed community members Wednesday evening for a lecture titled 'Returning the American Chestnut to Our Forests.'
The event featured guest speaker Mark Double, a representative from the West Virginia Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, who dug deep providing insight to those in attendance about the foundation's ongoing efforts to restore the American chestnut tree to its native habitat in the forests of the Northeast. Double also discussed the challenges posed by the chestnut blight that has nearly wiped out the American chestnut tree species.
'So, we're using a back cross breeding technique where you take American chestnut and Chinese chestnut and you cross them. You'll produce nuts out of those and those initial nuts will be 50% American and 50% Chinese. Your plant those nuts, you grow them up into trees that are 5 to 6 years, and they begin to flower, and you take flowers from those trees, and you back across to pure American,' Double said.
The lecture was free of charge and open to the public, offering attendees an opportunity to learn more about the importance of the American chestnut tree and the initiatives being undertaken to ensure its resurgence in the region.
One of West Virginia's first flowering trees in spring is actually invasive
'This is an extremely important tree in terms of mass production because unlike oaks, which would produce acorns every other year, chestnut produced chestnuts every year because it doesn't flower until mid to late June. So, by that time frost is gone and you have a great crop of chestnuts every single year,' Double added. '
Also, the Kump Education Center will host its next free tree talk on Wednesday, April 23, at 7 p.m. titled 'Stress, Strain, and Trees: An Introduction to Tree Mechanics and Risk Assessment.' That lecture will feature guest speaker Ken Beezley, Instructor of Sustainable Resource Management at Davis and Elkins College.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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