American Chestnuts, Warren, PA George Fieo
June 04, 2009

Ed and ENTS,

I came across this link,

http://www.bradfordtoday.com/news/mature-american-chestnut-trees-at-rimrock-says-the-american-chestnut-foundation-284.html

says-the-a..., while browsing the web the other day.  The article is dated
October 26 2008.  Between 30 and 40 trees were analyzed and are 100%
American chestnut trees.  Many of the trees are 40-70' tall and between
25-40 years old.  Several of the trees may be nut-bearing and have no signs
of the blight.   The trees are located in the Rimrock Scenic Overlook area
which is part of the Allegheny National Forest.  Ed, are these the same
trees that Carl and you measured in September 2006?

George Fieo


George,

No this is not the same location.  Both are around the reservoir, but we visited Chestnut Ridge http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/penna/chestnut_anf/chestn... and an older campground opposite the highway from Chestnut Ridge.  The area is filled with American Chestnuts.  An old report "The Ecology and Silvics of Forest in the High Plateaus of Pennsylvania by A.F. Hough and R. D. Forbes, Ecological Monographs, Vol 13, No. 3, July 1943. " reports that is some areas of the forest as much as 90% of the basal area was chestnut.  The area we visited on Chestnut Ridge, one of the places Friends of Allegheny Wilderness (A Citizens' Wilderness Proposal for Pennsylvania's Allegheny National Forest: http://www.pawild.org/exec_summary.html )  is pushing wilderness designation, was certainly dominated by Am. chestnut. maybe representing half the trees in many areas. As I am sure you read most were shorter less than 20-30 feet, but the tallest was 71.3 feet tall and 2.5 feet in girth.  The ones at the former campground site were taller in general, but we did not find any taller than the 71 foot specimen in our brief visit.  It is a neat area.  James Parton would go nuts.

Ed Frank


Ed,

Are you or any other ENTS members close enough to locate and accurately
measure any of the Rimrock chestnuts?  Some are reportedly 70' tall.  The
American Chestnut Project Spreadsheet lists six trees over 70' so one or two
more trees would be awesome.

George   Fieo


George,

Attached is a photo from Chestnut Ridge of a hiker standing next to a
chestnut tree (on the individual's immediate right) in the fall of 2002. I
guesstimated the tree to be at least 60' tall. It had no visible sign of the
blight. I have not been back to see it lately so I don't know if it's still
alive.

People can advocate with their U.S. Representative that Chestnut Ridge (and
our other proposed ANF wilderness areas) be designated by law as wilderness
by visiting http://www.pawild.org and downloading the template letter in
Word format on the right-hand side of the front page. Edit the letter as you
see fit to put it into your own words, print it out, and mail it to your
Rep.'s district office. If you need an address, you can find it through
http://www.house.gov

Also, the Morrison Run and Chestnut Ridge areas are not the only places in
the ANF where chestnut tress can be found. You will run across them on a lot
of the plateau (ridge) tops out there.

Kirk Johnson

Map of Chestnut Ridge: http://www.pawild.org/images/maps/chestnut_ridge.jpg

Map of Morrison Run (where Rimrock is located): http://www.pawild.org/images/maps/morrison_run.jpg


Continued at:

http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/79b84caf86af57fb?hl=en