American Chestnut (Macon County, NC) Traditional Cache
American Chestnut (Macon County, NC)
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This is the site of one of the largest naturally occurring American Chestnut trees that I know of in the region. There are a few larger trees in the Smoky Mountains National Park, but most do not reach this size before they are killed.
What's killing the trees? As you climb up from the road, look at the bark on the base of the tree just beside the large, 2-foot tall stump. The gnarled appearance is the result of the chestnut blight fungus, an introduced pathogen which was brought into the United States from Asia sometime around the year 1900. This fungus attacks American chestnut trees and kills bark tissue. While some chestnut species are resistant, the American chestnut is highly susceptible.
When we hike through the mountains of North Carolina today, we often don't realize that the forests we see are not as they once were. Formerly, as many as 60% of the trees in these mountains were American Chestnut. Between 1926 and 1950 the chestnut blight fungus devastated nearly all of the natural American chestnuts in the eastern US. By the end of the 20th century, the number of surviving trees in Western North Carolina had been reduced from several million to just a few hundred. Although a few chestnut trees still survive today, the blight is still present and infects most trees before they reach 10 years of age.
Look around, however, and you'll notice many small chestnut sprouts in the vicinity of the cache. You may also notice the many burrs that litter the ground. Several of these trees are old enough to produce seed, and they do so every year. These two factors, the ability to produce sprouts from the roots of infected trees plus the ability to produce viable seed, may possibly mean the survival of the American Chestnut, but only time will tell.
Currently, the American Chestnut can be found on sites like this one all the way from Georgia to Maine, although sadly such stands are few and far between. In fact, there are several hundred known American Chestnut trees throughout Western North Carolina, most of which are along high mountain ridges between 4,000 and 5,000 feet in elevation. In 2006 and 2007 we located 34 chestnut trees on Albert Mountain, including the 7 trees at this spot. We have returned numerous times since to check on these trees and to conduct other research in the area. If you see a Mississippi State vehicle at the Albert Mountain trailhead, it's probably us.
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(Decrypt)
snyyra ybt
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