Guest speaker at our Annual General Meeting on March 2, 2006 was Terry Anderson, CSLT director. Terry assumed the Chair of the Canadian Chestnut Council as of December 2005 and kindly accepted our invitation to speak at the AGM.
Terry told us the largest chestnut in Canada is found in Nova Scotia with the previous record held by a chestnut at Cedar Creek, Essex County known as the Arner tree. Another large specimen is found in Sault Ste. Marie.
Terry discussed the goals of the CCC which are to restore the chestnut to its original status as a forest tree in Ontario, distribute seedlings, use weak strains of pathogen to weaken all the strains and to breed blight resistant trees.
The blight was introduced to North America one hundred years ago into New York from which it spread. By the 1950s most chestnuts in N.A. were dead or dying. If cankers are present on a chestnut, generally the tree will die.
The range of the chestnut is in the eastern portion of North America in the Appalachian Mountains to Mississippi and Alabama in hilly areas.
Why try to save the chestnut? It is a very useful tree with nuts that may be used for food including both for human and wildlife consumption. Its wood is useful for lumber for furniture, flooring, and beams in barns. Settlers used this wood. It is a challenge to work towards saving this species. All CCC members love trees.
Three historical photographs showed astonishing chestnuts. A 1910 photograph of a tree from St. Williams shows a huge chestnut. Another massive tree from the Appalachian Mountains is an apparent victim of the blight. A third photograph shows a grove of trees that well could be called the Redwoods of the East.
Terry provided some Chestnut biological background. Two trees are needed to produce nuts. Trees flower in July and nuts are produced in October. Chestnuts are deep shade intolerant but will grow rapidly with sunlight. This species grows well in well drained sandy loam soil.
The chestnut blight came to North America from China. The Chinese chestnut is blight resistant.
Burrs of the chestnut are very spiny and contain 2 to 3 nuts.
The CCC has had a series of projects to benefit the chestnut. Project #1 was a survey carried out by the University of Guelph from 2000 - 2003. Public lands were surveyed where 200 - 300 Chestnuts were found. Trees were tagged with the results published in 2005 along with the soil types and severity of disease noted. A distribution map showed chestnuts in Haldimand-Norfolk and a few sites in Essex.
Project #2 involved distributing seedlings from nuts collected in Norfolk. Some 2,000 seedlings were distributed to as many locations as possible. Project #3 is related to hypovirulence which is on "the back burner."
Project # 4 is related to the breeding of trees that will be resistant to the blight. Twenty mother trees are part of this project which involves controlled pollination. Nuts are collected from which seedlings are grown in a greenhouse with distribution to growing sites at the Tim Horton's camp at Ondonaga in Brant County and Riverbend Farms at Aylmer where 1,500 hybrid trees are presently growing.
Terry stated there are still many questions about the recovery success of the chestnut. A new strain of the fungus may develop. A new disease could attack the new trees. Changes may occur in the environment.
The Canadian Chestnut Council was formed in 1988 with Dr. Colin McKeen as President for many years. There are twelve board members with a membership of two hundred. An annual meeting is held and a quarterly newsletter is produced. The CCC works in collaboration with the MNR, OMAF, SONG, University of Guelph, WWF with funding from the OTF.
Land Trust director Bill Balkwill thanked our guest speaker Terry Anderson on behalf of everyone with the presentation of a framed certificate.