Once called “the redwood of the east” with a typical height of more than 100 feet and a diameter up to 10 feet, the American chestnut is a historical icon of Appalachian ecology. Its destruction was also an archetypical North American ecological disaster. But now, amid the rising despair and psychological weight of climate change, citizen scientists are using community conservation to restore an ecology of hope for the trees. Their victories are preserving more than a keystone biological species. They’re saving a living vessel of ancient stories from cultures around the world — including the hidden histories of their own mountain homes.
Among the most significant dietary and economic resources in Appalachia, the chestnut fed a rich sprawl of multiracial agrarian communities, fattening both hogs and children among Kentucky’s poorest families, whose grandparents still recount memories of individually named trees.
