The American chestnut tree once reigned as the king of hardwoods in the eastern United States.
Some 4 billion covered 200 million acres along both sides of the Appalachian Mountains running from Maine to Georgia. Its timber was used for construction and its sweet chestnuts were gobbled up by the handful. Its towering presence inspired poets such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who placed the village blacksmith under its spreading branches.
Last century, the American chestnut tree was nearly wiped out by a fungus-fueled blight that devoured nearly all of the region’s mature trees by the 1950s. The fungus is believed to have been introduced to North America about 1904 on imported blight-resistant Chinese chestnut trees.
Today, there are efforts in New Jersey to revive the species, and although initial signs are promising, firm results might not be known for years.
A cluster of young American chestnut trees at Duke Farms in Hillsborough could help the species bounce back. Ecologists with Rutgers University have been planting scores of them at the preserved natural refuge to nurture a fungus-proof version, one that will survive the blight that breaks down their tissue.
From NJ.com: https://www.nj.com/somerset/index.ssf/2012/09/nj_researchers_trying_to_reviv.html