Bethlehem’s Water Authority in a release April 11 described a plan to repopulate some of its Carbon County watershed with chestnut and oak trees that were once supplanted by the intrusive Chinese species.

According to Forester Robin Wildermuth, the American chestnut was once a dominant component of the forests around the Bethlehem Authority in Penn Forest Township, Carbon County. “Original survey maps from 1793 indicate chestnut trees marking the corners of many warrant parcels, and early settlers used chestnut for everything from firewood to barn lumber and furniture. The early 1900’s saw the chestnut blight from Asia sweep through the region and decimate the chestnuts. The blight killed the above-ground portion of the tree, but not the roots. Root sprouts persist throughout the forests, a reminder of the species that formerly occupied a place in the canopy.

“Over the past 35 years the Pennsylvania Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation has worked through volunteers, donations and grants to execute an extensive breeding program designed include the disease resistance from the Chinese chestnut with the character of the American chestnut in a potentially blight resistant (PBR) chestnut tree. After six generations of breeding and selecting for desired characteristics, this strain of the tree is hopefully ready to withstand attacks by the disease and once again assume its position in the future forest canopy.”

Wildermuth said about 2.5 acres near Wild Creek Reservoir will be planted with 400 chestnuts mixed with 600 red and white oak in a mixed planting that should mimic the native forest composition, and over the next several years seedlings will be tracked for survival and early growth to compare chestnut with our common oak species. It is expected that the chestnut will outgrow the oak on our typical soils, but the planting will serve as a demonstration to guide future efforts to plant and restore the chestnuts across the watershed.

Volunteers and board members will participate in the planting April 22.