Can This Tree Be Saved? : The once-mighty American trees have nearly died out. There’s a chance that the science of the ‘90s can save them.

Close your eyes and you can still see them: American chestnut trees, steeple-straight, towering 100 feet tall, as much as 10 feet in diameter. The redwood of the Appalachians.

They’re gone now, almost all of them. Making up one-quarter to one-third of the hardwood forests on the East Coast at the turn of the century, adult American chestnut trees today are as scarce as a village smithy.

Once, the chestnut was the workhorse of American trees. Its lumber made everything from fine musical instruments to log cabins and sturdy insect-proof fences that would last 100 years. The railroads that spanned the continent were built on chestnut ties, and when telecommunications was just a dream, it was chestnut lumber that provided the choicest telephone poles.

The nuts, which were almost always abundant, represented not only a source of food but also an important cash crop through much of its range. Indeed, historians have suggested that one reason the Depression hit so hard in the mid-South was that it coincided with the disappearance of the chestnut tree.

For in 1904, the chestnut trees began to die. By 1909, the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that most of the trees within a 30-mile radius of New York City were infected and that the blight had spread to at least eight other states. By 1920, trees in the Northeast were wiped out. By 1930, the trees were dying in Virginia. By 1940, the damage extended to Alabama. By 1950, the war was over and we’d lost.

The victor was the chestnut blight, Cryphonectria parasitica, a fungus in which the spores are “extremely small, almost smoke-like in particulate size,” according to one scientific journal.

Borne on the wind and carried on the feet of migrating birds, the spores would lodge in cracks in the trees’ bark, then spread around the circumference, choking off the flow of water and nutrients.

From China and Japan, where the native trees are immune to it, the blight was probably imported into this country on the bark of trees. In one of a series of blight ironies, those Asian trees were probably imported to cross-breed with American trees to produce bigger nuts.

The blight was first described in 1904 by Herman W. Merkel, of the Bronx Zoological Park. He turned the investigation over to his colleague, William A. Murrill, who published the first papers on the subject in 1908. Alarmed by the plague, Murrill advocated cutting down all chestnut trees within half a mile of the infected area, isolating the fungus.

Nobody paid any attention. It wasn’t until 1911 that there was a laboratory established to study the disease. On the other hand, given the rapidity with which the blight spread, Murrill’s proposal probably would have been useless anyway.

Finally, in 1912, a scientific conference was called in Philadelphia (in Pennsylvania, the chestnut crop--nuts and lumber--was estimated to be worth $40 million) to examine ways of stopping the plague.

By then, the blight was taken seriously, and those assembled regarded its eradication with almost patriotic fervor. This was, after all, the start of the American century.

“Unless this disease be stopped . . . it is certain that within a few years very few living wild chestnut trees will be found in America,” said Pennsylvania Gov. John Tener in his opening remarks. “It is, therefore, entirely in accord with the American spirit that we make every effort to destroy or check the advance of this blight.

“As Admiral Dewey, at about the outset of our war with Spain, was directed by President McKinley and the Cabinet to seek out the Spanish fleet and destroy it, so it might be said that the only direction given this commission was to find this dread chestnut bark disease and destroy it.”

R.A. Pearson, the former New York commissioner of agriculture, was elected chairman and seconded Tener’s sympathies.

“It has been suggested that we should do nothing to counteract the ravages of the chestnut tree disease, because we are not fully informed as to how to proceed,” he said, in a rousing speech punctuated by applause. “That is un-American. If we had waited until the application of steam should be thoroughly understood, we would be still waiting for our great trains and steamboats, which are the marvel of the age.”

Indeed, there were those who advocated doing nothing. Remember, these people were facing a biological holocaust of almost unprecedented ferocity. And although there were those who advocated action at any cost--destroying the forest to save the trees--there were also those who, whether out of fiscal conservatism or natural fatalism, said there was no cure.

Professor F.C. Stewart of the New York Agriculture Experimentation Station was one.

“It is better to attempt nothing,” he said, “than to waste a large amount of public money on a method of control which there is every reason to believe cannot succeed.”

And F.B. Jewett, described only as being of Susquehanna County, Pa., was almost poetic in his pessimism.

“A few years ago I was out in Kansas, and on that wild prairie, a heavily loaded team had passed over in the spring,” he said. “It was September when I was there, and across that unbroken prairie were two distinct tracks and sometimes, when the forward wheel had not run exactly straight, there were four tracks; and in every one of those tracks was a thrifty growth of sunflowers. Can you tell me how those sunflowers came there? If you will tell me that, I will tell you what spreads the fungus on your trees.”

The tree-choppers eventually won and cut a swath a mile wide around the infected trees. Of course, their efforts amounted to nothing.

We now know they may have aggravated the problem by eliminating any trees that were resistant to the blight.

“[The Americans] didn’t give the chestnut a chance to respond to the disease,” says Phillip Rutter, part of the American chestnut renaissance at his Badgersett Research Farm in southeastern Minnesota.

“In the early part of the blight, it became the official recommendation to cut the chestnut trees in front of the disease. After all, after the trees had been killed and the bark fell off, the value of the timber dropped. But, in fact, if there were resistant American chestnuts, they may very well have been killed along with the others.”

In Italy, where the blight appeared several years after it did in America, the trees healed themselves. After being practically decimated by the blight, in the 1950s trees began to be found that seemed to be fighting off the disease.

In the laboratory, a French scientist isolated the cure: a virus that weakened the fungus, making it less virulent than normal and giving the tree time to protect itself. What’s more, it was found that this virus is sexually transmitted--if you have an infected fungus living next to an uninfected fungus, if the fungi are sexually compatible, they will mate, passing on the weakening virus.

In Italy, this virus was occurring naturally; in France, the remaining trees had to be inoculated. Whichever, the treatment was successful, and today most of the chestnuts you’ll find in the supermarket are from Italy.

Attempts to use this virus in the United States have not been as successful. There are too many sexual types of the blight around to be combated. Recently, though, two scientists--Donald Nuss and Gil Choi--have reported breaking the DNA code of the virus, opening the possibility of genetically engineering a cure.

Others, including Rutter, pin their hopes for resuscitating the chestnut on old-fashioned plant breeding--ironically again crossing American and Chinese trees. This, too, has met with mixed success in the past.

But Rutter says that may have been because the Chinese trees used in the past were subtropical orchard trees. Wild trees might have more potential, as might trees that are native to a more temperate region, closer to the climate of the American chestnut.

“This has been tried before, but now we’re using ‘90s science instead of ‘20s science,” says Rutter. “Things look hopeful.”

Because, in fact, there are and have always been living American chestnuts. The tree is one of nature’s true optimists, continuing to send up sprouts from the root system long after the trunk is dead. Of course, before they reach maturity, the blight finds them, too.

“They keep coming back from roots,” says Rutter, “only they’re 4 feet tall rather than 100 feet tall. I know of some root systems that are more than 150 years old. The chestnut has an extraordinary ability to renew itself.”

CHESTNUT CAKE

This and the recipe for chestnut souffle come from Adrienna Bota. They were collected by her mother and while they aren’t strictly American--Bota is of Romanian heritage--they are similar to many of the traditional American recipes, only they taste better than any of the ones we tested.

1 3/4 cups Chestnut Puree

1/4 pound semi-sweet chocolate

1/2 cup chopped blanched almonds

1/2 cup soft bread crumbs

8 eggs, separated

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup whipping cream

6 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 tablespoon rum

Press 1 1/4 cups Chestnut Puree through potato ricer or food mill and set aside. Grate chocolate and set aside. Mix almonds with bread crumbs and set aside.

Beat egg whites with salt until stiff. Slowly beat egg yolks with granulated sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract until thick.

Fold beaten yolks into Chestnut Puree, then add grated chocolate. Fold in almond-crumb mixture. Mix in 2 tablespoons beaten egg whites to lighten, then gently fold in remainder.

Turn into 9-inch springform pan, greased and lined with parchment paper and bake at 325 degrees 1 to 1 1/4 hours.

Whip cream until soft peaks form, gradually add 3 tablespoons powdered sugar and beat until stiff. Set aside.

To remaining 1/2 cup Chestnut Puree, add remaining vanilla extract, powdered sugar and rum.

When ready to serve, spoon whipped cream on top of cake and press Chestnut Puree mixture through ricer on top of whipped cream.

Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Each of 8 servings contains about:

630 calories; 209 mg sodium; 258 mg cholesterol; 28 grams fat; 85 grams carbohydrates; 12 grams protein; 1.07 grams fiber.

CHESTNUT SOUFFLE

1/2 pound chestnuts, roasted and peeled

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon rum

1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons butter, melted

6 egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks

Powdered sugar

Place chestnuts, granulated sugar and milk in saucepan and cook until chestnuts are soft, about 45 minutes. Add more milk if needed. Puree in food mill or processor and cool.

Add rum, cream, vanilla extract and melted butter to chestnut puree and mix together. Fold in beaten egg whites. Divide evenly among 6 greased and sugared 6-ounce souffle molds and bake at 350 degrees until puffed, golden and dry, about 20 to 25 minutes. Top with powdered sugar to taste.

Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about:

268 calories; 118 mg sodium; 41 mg cholesterol; 13 grams fat; 31 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 0.63 gram fiber.

CHESTNUTS IN SYRUP

This recipe from Elizabeth Wunder comes from a cookbook put out by the New York Botanical Garden, where the chestnut blight was first recognized. Serve the chestnuts at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

3/4 pound chestnuts, roasted and peeled

1/2 lemon

1 tablespoon anise seeds

1/3 cup raisins

1/4 cup brandy or sherry

Water

1/2 cup sugar

Combine chestnuts, lemon, anise, raisins and sherry in heavy saucepan. Cover with water. Stir in sugar and bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook until nuts are tender, at least 1 hour, adding more water if needed. Remove lemon before serving.

Makes 4 servings.

Each serving, without ice cream, contains about:

350 calories; 4 mg sodium; 0 cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 75 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; 1.77 grams fiber.

CHESTNUT PUREE

Use this puree as an ingredient in other recipes or serve it by itself with whipped cream.

1 1/2 pounds chestnuts, roasted and peeled

Milk

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons heavy cream

3 tablespoons rum

Place chestnuts in pan and add milk to cover. Stir in sugar and simmer gently until tender. If necessary, add more milk. When tender, press through food mill or puree in food processor. Taste and add more sugar if necessary. Add heavy cream and rum. Press puree again through potato ricer or food mill.

Makes 4 1/2 cups puree.

Each 1/4-cup serving contains about:

142 calories; 15 mg sodium; 4 mg cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 28 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 0.66 gram fiber.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Chestnut Sources

Thanks to the roasting thing, fresh chestnuts can be found in most supermarkets at this time of year. If you want other chestnut products, or if you want nuts after the holidays, try shopping at 99 Ranch Market, 1340 W. Artesia Blvd., in Gardena; Ron’s Market, 5270 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood or Sorrento Italian Market, 5518 Sepulveda Blvd. in Culver City. You can also buy them mail order from Chestnut Hill Orchards in Austin, Texas. They offer Italian chestnut flour and dried chestnuts through Natural Lifestyles Supplies (800) 752-2775.

* Kay Young plates from Feast in Pasadena.