[MassChestnutOrchards] FW: [TACF-GROWERS] FW: Reviving American chestnuts may mitigate climate change

[Yvonne Federowicz]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Sara Fitzsimmons <sff3 at psu.edu>
Reply-To: "TACF-GROWERS at LISTS. EDU" <TACF-GROWERS at LISTS.PSU.EDU>
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:00:29 -0400
To: "TACF-GROWERS at LISTS. EDU" <TACF-GROWERS at LISTS.PSU.EDU>
Subject: [TACF-GROWERS] FW: Reviving American chestnuts may mitigate climate
change


Hi everyone,

There was a good amount of discussion about chestnuts and climate change
across this list a few weeks ago.  Thought you all might find this
interesting.

Many thanks to Tracey for passing this along.

Sara
> 
> Reviving American chestnuts may mitigate climate change
> 
> 
> WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -
>  
> A Purdue University study shows that introducing a new hybrid of the American
> chestnut tree would not only bring back the all-but-extinct species, but also
> put a dent in the amount of carbon in the Earth's atmosphere.
> 
> Douglass Jacobs, an associate professor of forestry and natural resources,
> found that American chestnuts grow much faster and larger than other hardwood
> species, allowing them to sequester more carbon than other trees over the same
> period. And since American chestnut trees are more often used for high-quality
> hardwood products such as furniture, they hold the carbon longer than wood
> used for paper or other low-grade materials.
> 
> "Maintaining or increasing forest cover has been identified as an important
> way to slow climate change," said Jacobs, whose paper was published in the
> June issue of the journal Forest Ecology and Management. "The American
> chestnut is an incredibly fast-growing tree. Generally the faster a tree
> grows, the more carbon it is able to sequester. And when these trees are
> harvested and processed, the carbon can be stored in the hardwood products for
> decades, maybe longer."
> 
> At the beginning of the last century, the chestnut blight, caused by a fungus,
> rapidly spread throughout the American chestnut's natural range, which
> extended from southern New England and New York southwest to Alabama. About 50
> years ago, the species was nearly gone.
> 
> New efforts to hybridize remaining American chestnuts with blight-resistant
> Chinese chestnuts have resulted in a species that is about 94 percent American
> chestnut with the protection found in the Chinese species. Jacobs said those
> new trees could be ready to plant in the next decade, either in existing
> forests or former agricultural fields that are being returned to forested
> land.
> 
> "We're really quite close to having a blight-resistant hybrid that can be
> reintroduced into eastern forests," Jacobs said. "But because American
> chestnut has been absent from our forests for so long now, we really don't
> know much about the species at all."
> 
> Jacobs studied four sites in southwestern Wisconsin that were unaffected by
> the blight because they are so far from the tree's natural range. He compared
> the American chestnut directly against black walnut and northern red oak at
> several different ages, and also cross-referenced his results to other studies
> using quaking aspen, red pine and white pine in the same region.
> 
> In each case the American chestnut grew faster, having as much as three times
> more aboveground biomass than other species at the same point of development.
> American chestnut also sequestered more carbon than all the others. The only
> exception was black walnut on one site, but the American chestnut absorbed
> more carbon on the other study sites.
> 
> "Each tree has about the same percentage of its biomass made up of carbon, but
> the fact that the American chestnut grows faster and larger means it stores
> more carbon in a shorter amount of time," Jacobs said.
> 
> Jacobs said trees absorb about one-sixth of the carbon emitted globally each
> year. Increasing the amount that can be absorbed annually could make a
> considerable difference in slowing climate change, he said.
> 
> "This is not the only answer," Jacobs said. "We need to rely less on fossil
> fuels and develop alternate forms of energy, but increasing the number of
> American chestnuts, which store more carbon, can help slow the release of
> carbon into the atmosphere."
> 
> Carbon dioxide is considered a major greenhouse gas, responsible for rising
> global temperatures.
> 
> Jacobs said that since this study looked at aboveground carbon sequestration,
> future studies would seek to understand more about how forests that contain
> American chestnuts store carbon below the ground. The Stry Foundation,
> Electric Power Research Institute, and Hardwood Tree Improvement and
> Regeneration Center funded the research.
> 
> Writer: Brian Wallheimer, 765-496-2050, bwallhei at purdue.edu
> 
> Source: Douglass Jacobs, 765-494-3608, djacobs at purdue.edu
> 
> Ag Communications: (765) 494-8415;
> Steve Leer, sleer at purdue.edu
> Agriculture News Page
> <http://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/AgComm/public/agnews/>
> 
> Note to Journalists: Douglass Jacobs can be reached by contacting writer Brian
> Wallheimer or through Jacobs' e-mail address listed below.
> 
> PHOTO CAPTION:
> Douglass Jacobs examines a young hybrid of the American chestnut. He expects
> the trees could be reintroduced in the next decade. (Purdue University file
> photo/Nicole Jacobs)
> 
> A publication quality photo is available at
> http://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/+2009/jacobs-chestnut.jpg
>  
> 

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