Forest Health Walk, Stop 13

The Once Great American Chestnut

The story of the American chestnut tree is an example of how a pest can alter the health of a forest.

In front of you are the sprouts of an American chestnut tree. Once known as the “sequoia of the east,” American chestnuts were large, towering trees that were very common in Massachusetts.

In the early 1900s, a fungus known as the chestnut blight was accidentally brought from China. The blight spread and wiped out most large American chestnut trees within 50 years.

Today, the living roots of these long-dead trees continue to send up new sprouts. The new trees typically grow to about 15 feet tall until they also succumb to the blight and die. Because of the blight, our eastern forests have lost an important structural component as well as a source of wildlife food and forest nutrients. 

Chestnut blight and woolly adelgid are just two examples of how pests affect our forests.  Our forests will continue to change, sometimes dramatically, due to the effects of other insect pests and climate change weather patterns.

Continue forward. Stay straight at the trail junction to reach Stop 14.