Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Saving the Boston Globe's Chestnuts

I am by plunking down by $1.50 every day.

Not for much longer. This will have to eventually stop.

"Effort to restore American chestnut trees shows promise; Hybrid plantings could be key to species’ revival" by Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post  |  October 31, 2010

WASHINGTON —By interbreeding the American with its Chinese cousin, tree lovers have created an American chestnut with some resistance to Asian blight and have developed a virus that can be injected into affected trees to combat the fungus. It’s a project that shows every sign of promise — with about 25,000 of the new chestnuts planted under the guidance of trained scientists and chestnut devotees.

If the hybrid plantings thrive, some envision huge tracts of strip-mined Appalachia one day being restored with lovely chestnut forests....

A fast-growing, hardy tree that thrives on rocky and acidic soil, the American chestnut served as an economic engine for Appalachia. Families fattened livestock with its nuts and used its wood for fuel, railroad ties, fence posts, musical instruments, and furniture. It was a fixture along East Coast and Appalachian streets and highways....

Although chestnuts continue to be sold in the United States, those that are offered by street vendors, for example, tend to come from European trees....

The most promising work remains in traditional breeding. After an initial cross with Chinese chestnuts to obtain genetic resistance to blight, volunteers have repeatedly “backcrossed’’ the offspring with other American chestnuts....  

It's tree incest!

--more--"

I've got another part of the anatomy to show them, dear readers:

"Highlighting the immediate warming consequences, researchers said last winter’s massive snowstorms in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states were tied to higher Arctic temperatures....  

Yeah, the harsh brutal winters are due to global warming. With all the fart mist being belched around that colossal lie heating tings up that may very well be.

--more--"  

Yeah, the lying about the weather deserves a flash. 

Also see: Backyard treehouse survives zoning fight in Manhattan