Introduction - My Family Tree

• My family, American chestnut trees, once made up about 25 percent of our eastern North American forests.
  
• We grew up to 100 feet tall.
  
• We lived up to 600 years.
  
• Animals of the forest, including people, depended on our delicious American chestnuts.
  
• Our wood was valued because of its straight, light-weight, rot-resistant qualities.
  
• People used us to make everything from cradles, to chests
  
• to coffins out of us.
  

Starting around 1904, disaster struck.  My family fell

prey to a deadly new blight .
The blight possibly arrived when Oriental chestnut trees were imported to New York City. The microscopic blight quickly spread through our forests.


Every American chestnut tree in its path became infected and died. By 1950, we had nearly disappeared from all eastern United States forests

In 1983, Dr. Charles Burnham and other scientists formed The American Chestnut Foundation to save and restore my family. 

• 

Researchers are working hard to produce a blight-resistant strain of American chestnut trees.
So won't you team up with The American Chestnut Foundation and help us "fight the blight!"
Together, we have a good chance of winning this war.


Growing Up
Since you've probably never seen one of my American chestnut family members,
 I'd like to describe myself to you and explain how we grow. This will help you understand the plight of the blight!

Here's my baby photo.
 I'm still inside my protective bur covering.


I'm a woody plant - but because I'm also a tree, I'll be bigger than most plants when I'm grown up.
I have one stem, which becomes my trunk. My branches grow high above the ground.

Scientists believe that trees have lived on earth for about 300 million years.

They also believe that trees have more influence on life on earth than any other plant.

Like most plants, members of my family start life as a seed, and we need water, oxygen and warm temperatures to grow.

Once a seed gets wet, it soaks up the water and swells rapidly. If the soil is warm enough, the seed will use the soil's oxygen to burn the starch it has stored inside. This is how it produces energy to grow.

Then a tiny root appears. This tiny root helps the seed absorb more water and nutrients from the soil. One day, the sapling will pop out of the ground, lifting skyward with the stem and leaves.

That's my Uncle Chester
when he grew his first tiny root.

Then a new root begins forcing its way down in the soil to find water and nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, to help it grow.

A thimble-shaped cap protects the dividing cells and smoothes the passage of the root through the soil..

The roots' main job is to find water. Its little tiny hairs force their way between individual water-soaked soil particles.

All of us trees need lots of water!

But water needs to get from our roots all the way up to our leaves, which could be as high as 100 feet above ground in a chestnut tree... and as high as 300 feet up in a redwood tree!

How will the water get there?

We don't have a pump to push the water up ... Instead, several forces work together to carry water up without our help,

so that we trees don't have to use any energy.

Up there is my Grandma!

The American chestnut tree is rare in the eastern forests: few have survived. Someone found a single mature American chestnut tree in a Vermont forest . This was an important discovery. Scientists can now study why this single tree survived. If you think you found a rare American  chestnut tree,  or any tree depending where you are living,make sure you've identified the leaf correctly and can remember the tree's location.
 Then contact The American Chestnut Foundation

Charlie and his Amazing Jungle Adventure

        Charlie was a young Chimpanzee, he lived with his best friend Co-co the clown at Chigley’s Circus and had been there since he was very young.
He had been bought over to this country when his parents went missing after their trees were cut down.
Charlie didn't remember much about the place he was born but Co-co made him happy and there was always something to do;
he helped the clowns with their circus act, mending the ropes and buckets if they got bent or broken. He had his own special little car;
it was red with green bumpers and black leather seats and a little horn that went toot, toot when he pressed it, which he did a lot of times when he was being chased by the clowns.

Charlie would drive round the edge of the arena in the big top with the clowns chasing after him; of course they would never catch him, but they used to pretend to throw buckets of water over him, thebuckets were really full of coloured paper and when the clowns missed Charlie, and the water looked like it was going to soak the children in the front row, they would scream, then laugh as they realised they weren’t going to get wet after all.

As I said  Co-co was Charlie’s best friend, they had a lovely little caravan that they shared, Co-co had one half, well three quarters really and Charlie had the other quarter, they took it in turns to keep it nice and clean. Charlie had his own little bed and wardrobe with all his tiny suits and hats hanging up on coat hangers, to keep them neat and tidy for the shows. Co-co and Charlie did everything together and Charlie loved Co-co and the Circus so very much.

One of Charlie’s favourite jobs was helping Co-co wash the elephants down on a Saturday morning, they both ended up half drowned but it was better than going swimming and they laughed and laughed.
Charlie was beginning to feel really excited. It was time for the circus to move to a new town and this weekend they were off to Chester. Charlie had never been to Chester before but he knew it was not far from Wrexham, and they had been there last year and Co-co had seen the signposts but what Charlie didn’t
know, was that going to Chester was going to be the start of one of the greatest adventures of his life.

    They arrived in Chester early the following morning and the Council had given Mr. Chigley permission to put up the tents and that down in the big field by the river Dee. There was a hustle and a bustle from the time they arrived and it was the policy of the circus to always ask for the help of the local people in putting up the Big Top and the smaller tents that were needed for the different venues.
Charlie was sat on top of a big barrel, he had a huge smile on his face, it was so exciting. He was watching two of the local men unwinding the ropes ready to be attached to the Big Top; this was the tent that the clowns and Charlie did their act in. The men had been working very hard and had just sat down to have their tea and biscuits.“ Phew.” said Trevor. “I never realised these ropes could be so heavy, I’m quite shattered.”
he added. They carried on working for a while and then Bert took out his flask and poured another cup of tea.
"That's almost it Trevor. Bert said as he took a biscuit and dipped it in his tea, "and to think I still have that jungle to sort out before I can come to the show tonight."
Charlie almost fell off the barrel, did the man, Bert know where the jungle was? Was that where he lived long ago?
Poor Charlie he didn't really stop to think what he was thinking.
All he could see in his mind was a huge forest full of lions and tigers and of course chimpanzee's.
Maybe just maybe his mum and dad had managed to hide from the bad men and stayed in the jungle. Maybe they were still there    ..... always maybe.

Poor Charlie he really was in a terrible state.
Charlie sat back down on the barrel and watched the men working all the time his little mind trying to work out if he should follow Bert when he left the circus.
"What if he got lost? What if Coco missed him and found another best friend to live with him in the caravan? Oh dear it was a very, very difficult decision to make."
Somewhere a clock chimed twelve o'clock and Bert and Trevor put their ropes down and began to collect their belonging together.
Well that's me Bert, I'm off to watch the match on the telly, I don't envy you in this heat, having to do all cut all that grass and stuff. Still if you really get stuck in, you should be finished for tonight."
Trevor smiled and threw his rucksack over his shoulder, "See you tonight then." He patted Bert on his back and walked off down along the riverside path under the bridge.
"Aye I'll be there, it wont take that long once I get rid of the deep undergrowth and get big Bertha on it,"
He said to Charlie who was just sitting there watching as Bert got his stuff together.
"What do you think, my little mate. I guess you wouldn't mind staying  with me whilst I do it either, I bet it's a long time since you climbed trees if ever?" Bert walked over to the barrel and gave  Charlie a  tickle under his chin,
 Charlie looked up at Bert and took the piece of biscuit he held out for him.
"Well it's no good young un, if I want to come and see you perform tonight I shall have to get on or the Missus will have a fit." And with this Bert turned around and started to walk up the river path but away from the Race Course not towards it as Trevor had done.
Charlie made his decision and without another thought jumped off the barrel and started to follow Bert up the path. After what seemed ages and with the trees becoming thicker on both sides of the path , they at last came to a long fence. Charlie watched as Bert stopped and then vanish through a tall gate. Before he had time to get through the gate banged to and Charlie was left outside. Looking up he could easily have climbed the fence but he wasn't sure what might be lurking on the other side and so he made his way to  a small gap in the fence and with a bit of a squeeze and a lot of breathing