140. New Hope For a Connecticut Champion

For over 2000 years, the American chestnut was the tallest, largest, and most omnipresent tree in all Connecticut. It’s a tree for which a hundred hills, countless streets, and at least one Connecticut town were named, a tree whose nuts we sing about on the holidays, and a tree which helped frame our houses, shape our furniture, fence and feed our livestock, make tracks for our trains, and hold our utility lines.  In this episode,  Jack Swatt, President of the Connecticut chapter of the American chestnut Foundation, talks with state historian Walt Woodward about the long history and importance of the American chestnut tree, the devastation brought by the historic chestnut blight, and the amazing efforts by scientists today to restore this functionally extinct species to its former place in Connecticut’s woodlands.  Appreciation to Daniel Birch for "Trees in the Wind," episode intro music licensed by Creatrive Commons