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nafex - [NAFEX] American chestnut

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  • From: Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>
  • To: breen@fedcoseeds.com, North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: [NAFEX] American chestnut
  • Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2004 08:37:02 -0500

At 08:16 AM 6/16/2004 -0500, Heron wrote:
I still wonder whether the Chestnut will ever be more than functionally extinct,
since its habitat niche has been filled by other species in the last 50+ years.

Good point. Even oaks, which largely filled some of the niche vacated by the loss of the American chestnut following the introduction of the blight fungus, are having difficulty maintaining their foothold in some areas, as red & sugar maple make inroads into the forests, and become an increasingly prominent portion of the forest population. Maple seedlings are much more shade-tolerant than are oak & hickory seedlings, and in some areas, the understory of some forests is predominantly maple, with those maple seedlings skyrocketing once the mature canopy of oak & hickory are removed by timber harvest or storm damage, with the maples outstripping what the oak & hickory seedlings that may be present, and ultimately shading out/outcompeting many of them.

Here's an article from the Missouri Conservationist magazine on that topic: http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/conmag/2004/03/40.htm

Lucky





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