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  • From: Matthew Oller <matthewoller@yahoo.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Preserving (maybe not) rare apples in Yosemite Nation...
  • Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 10:23:07 -0700 (PDT)

Dadgum possums! somehow , I knew they had the clout to get that monorail through--

--- On Mon, 4/6/09, Kevin Moore <aleguy33@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Kevin Moore <aleguy33@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Preserving (maybe not) rare apples in Yosemite Nation...
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Monday, April 6, 2009, 12:04 PM

I disagree. Many apple varieties have been lost not because they were inferior, but because many orchardists were forced from the land. From the early twentieth century and continuing today, farm foreclosures have been a major factor in the loss of heirloom varieties of many plants.. None of them is in any sense inferior, except perhaps for the current fad of agri-mining that seems to dominate our nation at the moment.
I would much rather my tax dollars went to preserving diversity, (as they do with Thomas Jefferson's gardens,) than to build a train to Disneyland.


From: "Jwlehman@aol.com" <Jwlehman@aol.com>
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Sunday, April 5, 2009 8:50:39 PM
Subject: [NAFEX] Preserving (maybe not) rare apples in Yosemite Nation...

In a message dated 4/5/2009 6:47:27 PM Eastern Daylight Time, lonrom@hevanet.com writes:


>If you would be interested in being somehow involved with the
>preservation of these last known varieties of apples and pears, please
>contact me and I will provide you with the contact information for the
>National Park Service staff in Yosemite who would dearly love to see
>these trees saved for future generations.  It would be great, if when
>I am in Yosemite again next month, that I could have some good news
>for these hard working and concerned park employees that don’t have
>the means or government funds or support to do the preservation work
>themselves, but there are others that are willing to provide some kind
>of help.


Hello fruit variety preservationists,

I wouldn't donate one cent to preserve those varieties unless it is named and then no other known specimens of that variety available. There are over 3,000 named apple varieties and one place I read there are 5,000 and I suspect there are even more worldwide. Of these many are lost and with good reason, they were inferior to other varieties and have been lost to history because those that held them saw no reason to propagate them.

Eleven years ago Phil Forsline traveled to Kazakhstan to collect germplasm in the wild apple orchards consisting of thousands of acres. Several other trips were made and thousands of seeds brought back. Many seedlings of these seeds are being exposed to common diseases, especially Fire Blight. Those that survive are being grown and further tested. The Midwest Apple Improvement Assoc. (MAIA) has hundreds under test. Some are in the hands of private apple growers.. About 10 years ago in Maikop, Russia there was a Germplasm repository with 2,600 apple accessions, some remain today but have no idea how many. It isn't cheap to maintain any repository. Apples are not indigenous to the US. Most came from Europe with settlers. There are no natural wild apple forests in the US. It would be a one in a million shot that any of the
Yosemite material has any more valuable traits than what is available elsewhere. But it makes a good story for visitors.

I did have a list of hundreds of apple varieties that came into this country from Russia over a hundred years ago, some of which could be at
Yosemite. They may still be in Russia under another name.  

I know some of you will wish to throw rotten eggs at me after this, but I wouldn't want to see any of my tax dollars supporting that one collection of apple trees. I'd much rather my tax $$$ used to support the MAIA  

OK, I'm braced for the verbal eggs.

Jerry



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