North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

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