American Chestnut Tree Program
OMPHS Preservation and Propagation Program
Fall and Winter 2024
Chestnut Blight reaches Dougherty House trees
As winter descends on the Old Mission Peninsula, perhaps no group is more pleased with the arrival of cold temperatures than the enthusiasts preserving and propagating American chestnut trees.
Our newly found appreciation for the arrival of snow and freezing temperatures is the recent discovery of chestnut blight within our 20 tree inventory.
Three cases of suspected blight are being assessed. One is confirmed. We are working with a variety of experts to identify treatment options that will maximize our tree inventory but minimize the risk of further spread.
Sub freezing temperatures cause the fungus that spreads chestnut blight to effectively hibernate. In that sense, we have an opportunity to take steps necessary at an ideal time.
We expected this to happen at some time and have been preparing for it.
Tree removal as any homeowner knows is expensive. It’s exponentially more so when it involves very specific processes such as removing material in the drip line area as well as the tree and burning the entire tree to ash to kill the blight spores.
If you like what we are trying to do and would like to help us give the American chestnuts at Dougherty a fighting chance, click here and make a small contribution to help defray the costs of our remediation efforts. Make sure you scroll down the use this donation for drop down list to identify the donation for the " Chestnut Tree Program."
This is by far the most urgent and pressing matter for the OMPHS Chestnut Preservation and Propagation effort but there have been many highlights during this summer and fall.
More Trees
In August, a group of twelve affiliated by their fond attraction to the American chestnut assisted in a gridded survey of 70% of the forested section of the Dougherty property searching for unknown chestnut trees. When 2024 began, the museum grounds boasted eight trees. In early summer two new ones were discovered. The grid search resulted in the discovery of ten more trees several of which were nut bearing!
Harvest
The chestnut harvest commenced two weeks early this year. Our most recent discoveries which were young juvenile trees closer to the ground were picked clean by deer before we even started! Two of our trees that first produced this year, Klein and Ora, proved extremely popular with a large gaggle of turkeys who left beak sized pieces of the burr on the ground until they could snatch the nuts from inside. The Cole tree which had produced perhaps a dozen burrs in three years literally rained burrs on this author, dropping half a bucket during an afternoon in September!
In the end it was the two long lived trees - Ostlund and Sobkowski - that proved to be our providers again. In 2023, we harvested 123 nuts total, 120 from the Ostlund tree and three from the Sobkowski tree Perhaps the beehive that was installed near Ostlund was the key or maybe it was that Klein and Ora blossomed this year providing more pollen for Sobkowski, maybe it was both. In total we harvested 435 nuts compared to 123 last year.
We continue to learn and share what we know with others. This fall, we shared 20 nuts with an enthusiast who read about our October 2023 OMPHS meeting and began asking enough questions to prove his unadulterated love for the chestnut.
In an effort to improve the genetic diversity of our tree stock we traded forty of our nuts with a mentor who provided nuts from Allegheny Mountain chestnut trees in central Pennsylvania that come from blight resistant trees.
We have nearly 300 nuts in winter stratification. We will aim to plant these in late March. Since our growing capacity is limited; we will assess the seedlings along the way and keep only the hardiest specimens.
If you are reading this and would be interested in growing a small group of chestnut seedlings from April until October please contact Tom Dalluge thought our Contact Us form.
Crackin’ Day
On October 18, the Old Mission Peninsula School 5th grade visited Dougherty House for our second annual Crackin’ Day event. New volunteer Paul Hinchcliff visited the school on October 11 and spoke with the class about the chestnut species.
The 18 students and seven chaperones toured Dougherty House and took a nature walk on the hiking trail with a scavenger hunt providing added learning objectives. The children saw many of the Dougherty chestnuts and opened burrs, learning the difference between viable nuts and those unsuited to planting. Our beekeeper Tony Kramer explained the role of honeybees in pollination and demonstrated his gear. Once again the students visited with Jerry Ostlund, where they learned the history of his remarkable tree and were treated to cookies as they departed. Each child also received a bag with two European-American chestnuts compliments of Barb Wunsch together with instructions on how the nuts could be grown into trees in the spring.
New Seedlings Planted
November 13 was a significant milestone in the propagation program as the first four seedlings grown from Ostlund chestnuts were planted in a field owned by Nikki Sobkowski. This was a fitting honor, in recognition of the efforts undertaken over the years, by Steve and Nikki Sobkowski to protect and develop chestnut trees.
We will nurture these trees this winter and build protective fences to prevent deer incursions in the spring.
Mapping
One of our new chestnut enthusiasts is working with a former employer to use aerial mapping combined with topographical inputs to study the natural dispersion of the trees on the property. Chestnuts can be persnickety regarding their habitat. We believe this kind of mapping will provide insights into the best locations for seedling placement in the future. The maps developed will yield additional insights into the Dougherty property that we believe may improve the overall guest experience at the museum.
Looking Forward
The arrival of chestnut blight was not unexpected given the existence of crossbred American-Chinese trees on the peninsula. These cross bred trees tend to host but not die from blight. Blight also is a benign fungi that can attach to oak, maple and other northern hardwoods without creating harm. Because the spores move through the air, it was a matter of time before we faced this challenge.
But we have reason for cautious optimism. It is winter. The fungus spores are inert. Remediation is better now than in the summer. We can also assess without foliage the trunks and branches of all of our trees for lesions and cankers and take further steps as needed.
If you have interest in our efforts please contact the OMPHS website contact link. The American chestnut provided so much to our ancestors food, wood for furniture, fences, telegraph poles, railroad ties, and houses. It truly was our founding tree. Help us save this small remaining group of trees.
Fall and Winter 2024
Chestnut Blight reaches Dougherty House trees
As winter descends on the Old Mission Peninsula, perhaps no group is more pleased with the arrival of cold temperatures than the enthusiasts preserving and propagating American chestnut trees.
Our newly found appreciation for the arrival of snow and freezing temperatures is the recent discovery of chestnut blight within our 20 tree inventory.
Three cases of suspected blight are being assessed. One is confirmed. We are working with a variety of experts to identify treatment options that will maximize our tree inventory but minimize the risk of further spread.
Sub freezing temperatures cause the fungus that spreads chestnut blight to effectively hibernate. In that sense, we have an opportunity to take steps necessary at an ideal time.
We expected this to happen at some time and have been preparing for it.
Tree removal as any homeowner knows is expensive. It’s exponentially more so when it involves very specific processes such as removing material in the drip line area as well as the tree and burning the entire tree to ash to kill the blight spores.
If you like what we are trying to do and would like to help us give the American chestnuts at Dougherty a fighting chance, click here and make a small contribution to help defray the costs of our remediation efforts. Make sure you scroll down the use this donation for drop down list to identify the donation for the " Chestnut Tree Program."
This is by far the most urgent and pressing matter for the OMPHS Chestnut Preservation and Propagation effort but there have been many highlights during this summer and fall.
More Trees
In August, a group of twelve affiliated by their fond attraction to the American chestnut assisted in a gridded survey of 70% of the forested section of the Dougherty property searching for unknown chestnut trees. When 2024 began, the museum grounds boasted eight trees. In early summer two new ones were discovered. The grid search resulted in the discovery of ten more trees several of which were nut bearing!
Harvest
The chestnut harvest commenced two weeks early this year. Our most recent discoveries which were young juvenile trees closer to the ground were picked clean by deer before we even started! Two of our trees that first produced this year, Klein and Ora, proved extremely popular with a large gaggle of turkeys who left beak sized pieces of the burr on the ground until they could snatch the nuts from inside. The Cole tree which had produced perhaps a dozen burrs in three years literally rained burrs on this author, dropping half a bucket during an afternoon in September!
In the end it was the two long lived trees - Ostlund and Sobkowski - that proved to be our providers again. In 2023, we harvested 123 nuts total, 120 from the Ostlund tree and three from the Sobkowski tree Perhaps the beehive that was installed near Ostlund was the key or maybe it was that Klein and Ora blossomed this year providing more pollen for Sobkowski, maybe it was both. In total we harvested 435 nuts compared to 123 last year.
We continue to learn and share what we know with others. This fall, we shared 20 nuts with an enthusiast who read about our October 2023 OMPHS meeting and began asking enough questions to prove his unadulterated love for the chestnut.
In an effort to improve the genetic diversity of our tree stock we traded forty of our nuts with a mentor who provided nuts from Allegheny Mountain chestnut trees in central Pennsylvania that come from blight resistant trees.
We have nearly 300 nuts in winter stratification. We will aim to plant these in late March. Since our growing capacity is limited; we will assess the seedlings along the way and keep only the hardiest specimens.
If you are reading this and would be interested in growing a small group of chestnut seedlings from April until October please contact Tom Dalluge thought our Contact Us form.
Crackin’ Day
On October 18, the Old Mission Peninsula School 5th grade visited Dougherty House for our second annual Crackin’ Day event. New volunteer Paul Hinchcliff visited the school on October 11 and spoke with the class about the chestnut species.
The 18 students and seven chaperones toured Dougherty House and took a nature walk on the hiking trail with a scavenger hunt providing added learning objectives. The children saw many of the Dougherty chestnuts and opened burrs, learning the difference between viable nuts and those unsuited to planting. Our beekeeper Tony Kramer explained the role of honeybees in pollination and demonstrated his gear. Once again the students visited with Jerry Ostlund, where they learned the history of his remarkable tree and were treated to cookies as they departed. Each child also received a bag with two European-American chestnuts compliments of Barb Wunsch together with instructions on how the nuts could be grown into trees in the spring.
New Seedlings Planted
November 13 was a significant milestone in the propagation program as the first four seedlings grown from Ostlund chestnuts were planted in a field owned by Nikki Sobkowski. This was a fitting honor, in recognition of the efforts undertaken over the years, by Steve and Nikki Sobkowski to protect and develop chestnut trees.
We will nurture these trees this winter and build protective fences to prevent deer incursions in the spring.
Mapping
One of our new chestnut enthusiasts is working with a former employer to use aerial mapping combined with topographical inputs to study the natural dispersion of the trees on the property. Chestnuts can be persnickety regarding their habitat. We believe this kind of mapping will provide insights into the best locations for seedling placement in the future. The maps developed will yield additional insights into the Dougherty property that we believe may improve the overall guest experience at the museum.
Looking Forward
The arrival of chestnut blight was not unexpected given the existence of crossbred American-Chinese trees on the peninsula. These cross bred trees tend to host but not die from blight. Blight also is a benign fungi that can attach to oak, maple and other northern hardwoods without creating harm. Because the spores move through the air, it was a matter of time before we faced this challenge.
But we have reason for cautious optimism. It is winter. The fungus spores are inert. Remediation is better now than in the summer. We can also assess without foliage the trunks and branches of all of our trees for lesions and cankers and take further steps as needed.
If you have interest in our efforts please contact the OMPHS website contact link. The American chestnut provided so much to our ancestors food, wood for furniture, fences, telegraph poles, railroad ties, and houses. It truly was our founding tree. Help us save this small remaining group of trees.
For our May 2024 report click here.
American Chestnut Tree Planting DayRecently Tom Dalluge, Brad Lyman, Marty Klein and Dean Francis planted the first chestnuts that were stratified (sprouted) over the winter. They will stay indoors until the weather permits them to be planted outside.
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