| Wednesday, May 25, 2005 |
00:38 - Wait, he can't do that
http://www.acf.org/white_house.htm
|
(top)  |
Having been dolefully lectured on the subject by everyone from park rangers to Bill Bryson, it's hard not to be excited to see this:
The tree planted Friday came from a research farm in Virginia, where blight resistance was bred into the native chestnut with the help of the Chinese chestnut.
The American chestnut, prized for its timber and its crop of glossy dark nuts, once dominated Eastern forests from Maine to Georgia. The graceful trees were virtually wiped out by blight starting at the turn of the 20th century.
That loss, Case said, "was the greatest environmental disaster in the Western Hemisphere since the Ice Age."
Now, after years of breeding, cloning and crossbreeding, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is ready to reintroduce disease-resistant chestnuts to Eastern forests next year.
Case says the chestnut is also poised for a comeback that could reclaim the scarred face of closed coal mines. It can also absorb carbons released into the air by fuel-fired plants in the Midwest, he said.
"This is a major accomplishment," Case said. "(The president) is to be given a round of applause — that this is a help to the environment. There's no question about it."
Be sure to check out the rest of the site for further background information. I hadn't realized these efforts even existed—I'd been led to believe that the tree was extinct, and with it bucolic daguerrotypes of mustachioed men and spring-bustled women spreading a picnic under gigantic arching chestnut branches in parks, pennyfarthing bicycles leaned against the massive trunks. But who knew—there's hope after all.
Maybe the Greens will take to the streets to protest this obvious abuse of the power of genetic engineering or something, or perhaps they'll just cut down the White House sapling. Anything would be better than for this to succeed.
|
|
Brian Tiemann
