May 19, 2006

If you simply MUST hug a tree...

...there are none better to love than American chestnuts, so this is a welcome story--Rare American chestnut trees discovered

By ELLIOTT MINOR
The Associated Press

ALBANY, Ga. (AP) — A stand of American chestnut trees that somehow escaped a blight that killed off nearly all their kind in the early 1900s has been discovered along a hiking trail not far from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Little White House at Warm Springs.

The find has stirred excitement among those working to restore the American chestnut, and raised hopes that scientists might be able to use the pollen to breed hardier chestnut trees.

"There's something about this place that has allowed them to endure the blight," said Nathan Klaus, a biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources who spotted the trees. "It's either that these trees are able to resist the blight, which is unlikely, or Pine Mountain has something unique that is giving these trees resistance." [...]

Well, whatever it is, I hope they are able to help it spread. The article talks about the once-pervasive chestnut and the blight that nearly drove it to extinction (which I'm sure must have been George Bush's fault), as well as the current efforts to preserve the species with the introduction of genes from Chinese chestnuts that are blight-resistant.

It sure would be nice to repopulate with non-crossbred species, and I wish the Georgia folks much success in their efforts, because the chestnut is such a useful and beautiful tree.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at May 19, 2006 08:53 AM
Comments

I just knew that GWB and his gang of "fascists" had invented a time machine. It is a great comfort to me to know that now everything can be blamed on Bush. In fact, as of today I am officially blaming him for my "F" in Nuclear Physics in 1967.

If only Bush and his gang had not interfered with my education, I would understand that a time machine is impossible.

Posted by: Larry Anderson at May 19, 2006 09:10 AM

Well, see--it's self-evident that had you been studying NUCULAR Physics, you'd have gotten a much better grade.

Posted by: Terry Oglesby at May 19, 2006 09:32 AM

I suspect that if I had been studying at all I would have gotten a better grade. Regardless what the biologist say, osmosis doesn't work

Posted by: Larry Anderson at May 19, 2006 10:28 AM