Wild Chestnut: a gift of natural capital at the homestead

The American chestnut was a keystone species of the woods but it is effectively extinct after the Chinese chestnut blight ravaged the population over a hundred years ago. Cryphonectria parasitica (chestnut blight). The American chestnut has a fast growing timber form, abundant and consistent nut production, and the combination of the easily decomposing leaves and nurturing canopy creates habitat, sustenance, and fertility for not just wildlife but also for the people of eastern North America.

(An extreme example of how large American chestnut trees were in the late 1800s)

A Rare Discovery at the homestead
Here at the homestead, about 7 years ago, I discovered a lucky survivor of the blight. This chestnut tree is mature, producing nuts, and continues to grow!

The chestnut tree discovery occoured shortly after having some logging done to promote the growth of the sugar maple trees here at the homestead. The pathways the loggers left behind allowed me to easily put up fencing in the woods, which meant I could now keep my horses and rams off the pasture, leaving all the grass growing at the homestead available for feeding ewes and lambs for meat. One day, while doing some work in the woods in the new horse paddock, I found the distinctive chestnut hull and upon further search, some nuts!

Upon first finding the hills, I thought to myself, where the heck did these come from? A chestnut tree! Where the heck is the chestnut tree? I was looking around horizontally, and saw nothing. Then I looked up to find the chestnut tree towering over me. I spent several more days looking for additional nuts but I must have just gotten lucky with the first few I found. The squirrels beat me to the rest of them. After finding the tree, I quickly came to the realization that if this tree is producing nuts then maybe there are younger trees to found nearby, the offspring.

Sure enough there were! I found a couple young seedlings within 50ft of the tree. One died because it was within the ram paddock and I couldn't protect it from the rams. Eventually they ate it. The second tree, I have been taking care of for several years. It has been nibbled at by the horses and sheep several times but continues to grow. I have yet to eat one chestnut from the large mature chestnut tree, so far I have been trying to sprout them and grow more trees.

Just one year before discovering the wild Chestnut, I choose to plant some hybrid chestnuts I started from seed in the exact area where the mature tree is. I chose that location based on what I read were the ideal growing conditions for chestnut. Sandy light soil. Finding the wild Chestnut tree was confirmation that I had chose the location for the chestnut plantation well!

While this tree is unlikely a true American chestnut, it's probably some kind of American/European hybrid, the tree has many of the characteristics that made the American chestnut the keystone species that it was. Finding a wild Chestnut tree like this is incredibly rare and a sign to me that I've chose the right place to put down roots and prove to myself that permaculture will lead to a abundant and resilient lifestyle.