When I bought my timberland back in 1975 there still were remnants of the giant old chestnut trees. There was one old snag, a hollow old trunk that was weathered to a silvery color. It was about 7' in diameter. There were several others not quite as large. And there were places where the sprouts from the old dead trees were think in the undergrowth of stands of oak trees. I once hoped that the hypovirulent strains of the fungus that caused all the chestnuts to die would work to control the fungus, as it did in Europe, and all these sprouts would be able to grow back to replace the lost forests of chestnut. But no such luck. The sprouts are basically all gone now, largely because of deer browseing as well as repeated onslaughts of the fungus. And those magnificent silvery old dead chestnut tree trunks have all since fallen over and have almost completely rotted into the ground. --Spruce

It may be purely my own perception - I'm a lapsed ACCF member, and have friends who are active leaders in ACF - but ACCF seems to be a very loosely-associated group operating principally on volunteer labor and 'dues', while ACF seems to have a more well-developed structure and more funding. They're not necessarily working at cross purposes, but I'm not sure how much cooperation, if any, takes place between the two groups. It may be too great a philosophical difference - kind of like the gulf between purist 'organic' gardeners, and those who don't eschew the use of 'chemical' fertilizers/pesticides, etc. In a similar vein, the butternight blight/canker disease which has been devastating native butternuts has already revealed the benefit of infusion of Oriental germplasm. Genetic testing in the last few years has revealed that some of the named variety 'butternuts', which have been commercially propagated for decades, are in actuality, hybrids of butternut with the Japanese walnut, J.ailantifolia or its budsport, the heartnut. So...it may be, that in order for us to reintroduce these former denizens of the forest and have them reproduce reliably in the presence of these introduced pathogens, some non-native germplasm may be necessary, though the technological breakthrough of inserting resistance genes from other species may give a tremendous boost to speeding up the process. The next question, though, is, can species like the American chestnut and butternut reclaim their former niche, which has since been occupied by other species since their trip to the brink of extinction?

Thought some of you might enjoy reading this! Rare chestnut tree still survives in Ohio State official let it slip that one mature tree stands in Ohio; its exact location is protected. Staff and Wire Reports Tuesday, March 25, 2008 SANDUSKY For about seven years, the state's natural resources leaders have harbored a secret. They still won't reveal the exact location of it or allow outsiders to see it. This Ohio treasure's existence was closely guarded until last week when the director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources revealed that a full-size American Chestnut tree still stands in a marsh near Lake Erie, the Sandusky Register reported recently. For tree experts, it's a big deal. American chestnuts that grew up to 120 feet once accounted for about 25 percent of the forests in the eastern half of North America until a fungus wiped out all but a few. 'They are often referred to as the redwood of the East because of their tremendous size,' Gary Obermiller, a regional manager for the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves. The fungus was first detected in 1904 in trees in New York City, and by 1950 some 3.5 billion trees about 90 percent of the species were dead. Only a few trees had resistance to the fungus and survived. In Ohio, most American chestnut trees were found in the eastern half of the state. In August, the Dayton Daily News reported on the existence of a stand of American chestnuts anchored in a working sandstone quarry in Braceville Twp., Trumbull County, just west of Warren near the Mahoning River. The specimens that sit on a standstone knob are a handful, the tallest reaching 75 feet. According to the Register, the state's largest existing chestnut tree known only to a few until last week is in Sheldon Marsh, a 465-acre state nature preserve about midway between Toledo and Cleveland. The tree stands 89 feet tall and has a 5-foot circumference. 'To our knowledge, we don't have any that come close to this size,' Obermiller said. Most surviving chestnut trees are small, sprouting from the roots of trees killed by the fungus. Steve Maurer, the new chief of Natural Areas and Preserves, decided the public should be told about the tree, Obermiller said. 'He realized this was a very special tree,' Obermiller said. American Chestnut facts American chestnut trees once made up about 25 percent of forests in eastern North America. The trees grew up to 120 feet tall and lived up to 600 years. Its wood was valuable because it was straight, light and rot-resistant. A fungus that eventually wiped out most of the trees was first found in 1904 in New York. All American Chestnut trees in New York City were dead by 1912. By 1950 about 3.5 billion trees about 90 percent of the species were dead

ACF might be able to help you ID the species for sure, and they could maybe use the pollen http://www.acf.org/FAQ.php see question #6. Undeveloped nuts might be unfertilized - it takes two castanea trees to make babies! Are there other trees around?