LEE, N.H. (AP) – The discovery of two more American chestnut trees growing naturally in a local preserve is giving fresh hope to people in New England who want to see the once common tree restored to the northeastern landscape.

American chestnuts were once a popular treat, roasted and sold by sidewalk vendors. The trees shaded city streets and were a common timber crop in the woods from Georgia to Maine.

“If you and I had been here walking the woods of 100 years ago, the forest would be filled with these trees,” said Alan Eaton, a Lee Conservation Commission member who works for the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension.

A deadly fungus brought over from Asia in the early 1900s wiped out the American chestnut more than 50 years ago.

The American Chestnut Foundation, based in Bennington, Vt., is now on a mission to restore the American chestnut by breeding a fungus-resistant tree.

It aims to cross-breed American chestnut trees with disease-resistant varieties.

This is where the naturally growing trees found in Lee and other New Hampshire locations as well as in Maine and Georgia come into play.

Healthy American chestnut trees have genetic material that is vital to crossbreeding efforts that aim to retain the more unique characteristics of the American tree, including its height (it grows to 80 feet or more) and rot-resistant timber.

The Lee trees are two adult American chestnuts between 50 to 60 feet tall, Eaton said. They’ve produced flowers and nuts and appear to be unaffected by the fungus.

The trees are located on land that the town voted to conserve in 2002. Eaton would not disclose the trees’ exact location, saying no one should seek them out to touch, climb or otherwise disturb them.

Eaton said other American chestnut trees have been sighted in the Wakefield-Middleton area, North Andover and in Brookfield.

Maine has about 200 naturally growing, nut-producing American chestnut trees. Some of these are up to 100 years old, having been spared from the fungus.

Glen Rea, a member of the Maine chapter of the Chestnut Foundation, says his group finds naturally growing American chestnut trees that have not succumbed to the fungus. They then work to get samples of the trees to use in growing new trees.

The Maine chapter also is maintaining orchards of new disease-resistant trees. There are seven orchards spread across the southern and middle portions of Maine, containing a total of about 2,000 of the hybrids.

—

Information from: Citizen, http://www.fosters.com/citizen

AP-ES-06-18-06 1246EDT