The American chestnut tree used to flourish from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, from the Canadian frontier to North Carolina. It often reached a height of 100 feet, a ripe old age of 600 years. Today, where the once verdant chestnut forests stood, are scattered grey skeletons, a few scrubby little second growth trees. For Endothia parasitica, the chestnut fungus imported from Asia at the end of the last century, has systematically destroyed the American chestnut. Only a few stands are left in the Southern Appalachians and Endothia has started on them too....
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