Heritage Ridge Villas' Rare American Chestnuts To Become Stars!!

A few large American Chestnuts which fruit every year are growing right outside the E building of the Heritage Ridge Villas. Jan took some of the fruit and twigs with leaves to the American Chestnut Foundation in nearby Asheville. Ben Jarrett, the science coordinator, wants to come next fall and collect some of the fruit from our very rare Chestnuts, to help with their breeding program, designed to bring back now extinct American Chestnuts into our forests.

Giant Chestnuts used to cover the western North Carolina forests, but by 1950 had succumbed to blight, a fungal disease. They became extinct. The dead trees were attacked by insects and removed, drastically changing our forest environment and climate. The wood from these dead trees, called wormy chestnut, is prized and rare today and still used for decorative purposes.

The American Chestnut Foundation is trying to bring these trees back. By finding the few rare trees that still grow today, and breeding and selecting for the most resilient, they may succeed in bringing the trees back from extinction. The blight is here to stay, but some rare, remaining surviving trees may help repopulate our forests. Our Heritage Ridge Villas' trees are among these stars survivors.

See the pictures and videos below for more information and a view of "our" Chestnut trees.

The giant Chestnut tree, which populated our forests, until a blight caused it to go extinct.

The trunk, and the root sprouts, of one of our Chestnuts.  View looking up.
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Video showing location of HRV chestnuts, and a view of the hull of the fruit and the trees.  Stoney Falls condos are on the left and the Heritage Ridge Villas E building  and the 18th tee box are on the right (but not visible through the trees).
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Another view of the Heritage Ridge Villas' chestnuts, with E building on the upper left, and Stoney Falls condos on the lower right, driving toward Mountain Air Drive.