With Jeremy Bates
Pondicherry Girl Scout Camp,
85 Camp Pondicherry Rd., Bridgton, ME
Breakfast at the Denmark Church at 7:30 AM /Cooked by John Patrick followed by short planning meeting to work on the hike schedule. Then carpool to the camp.
It has recently come to our attention that there are a number of American Chestnut trees located in the woods of Pondicherry Girl Scout Camp in Bridgton. The camp’s long time caretaker Jeremy Bates has agreed to lead the Denmark Mountain Hikers on a tour of his woods to see some of these trees. Expect to walk several hours through the forests (the camp has over 600 acres) and up and down hills on their lovely property while learning a great deal about the trees and the efforts of the American Chestnut Foundation to preserve the species.
The American Chestnut was once the foundational species in the forests of the eastern United States. At some point in the late 1800s a pathogenic fungus, (Cryphonectria parasitica), snuck into our country probably on imported chestnuts from Asia. While Chinese chestnut trees are unaffected by this fungus, American Chestnuts die. The disease produced by the fungus is referred to as the Chestnut Blight. The blight was first discovered at the New York Zoological Garden in 1904. By 1950 it had wiped out an estimated 4 billion chestnut trees. The pathogen kills the tree above ground, although the root system may remain alive and continue to send up shoots into the understory for years. Rarely will these trees grow large enough to reproduce from seed. For this reason, the species is considered functionally extinct. Some of the Pondicherry trees are just that, young trees growing up from root shoots, but other trees are good sized and appear healthy, not yet infected by blight; they are the real thing However, they are not disease resistant, they just haven’t gotten infected and fallen ill yet.
When hearing about these trees, Jeff Sturgis commented , “I thought they were all dead.” Indeed, that’s what most people think. Yet, the reality is that Maine has more wild, mature surviving Chestnut trees than any other state. Some of these trees are in our neighborhood and Mr. Bates has a wealth of knowledge about Chestnut trees and is looking forward to sharing it with the Denmark Hikers. This will be a special opportunity.
More information about Chestnut trees in Maine and the efforts to save them: see the article at Maine Organic Farmers (MOFGA.ORG).
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