A front yard in southern Pulaski County has become another laboratory in an effort to re-establish American chestnut trees in eastern forests.
Female flowers (small burrs) on an American chestnut tree in Randall Albright’s yard on Lost Lodge Road have recently been pollinated with male flowers (catkins) and bagged. Hopefully, the pollinated flowers will produce chestnuts that will sprout into partially blight-free trees.
Arthur Tucker, a retired lumber company owner and member of the Kentucky Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation, assisted with bagging the blooms. He said the male flowers came from another tree in Virginia.
Chestnut trees bloom from mid-June to early July, depending on the location and elevation. A chestnut tree rarely self-pollinates. It takes at least two chestnut trees in the same vicinity for viable nut production.
The experimental sprout, about 15-20 feet tall, has grown from an American chestnut tree which Albright brought with him from McCreary County when he moved to Lost Lodge Road in the early 1960s. The original tree had a trunk about 18 inches in diameter near the ground when it succumbed to the blight and had to be taken down. The existing sprout grew from that trunk.
The American chestnut early in the 20th century was the most important tree in the forest from Maine to Georgia and from the Piedmont west to the Ohio Valley.
Wildlife depended on the American chestnut’s abundant crop of nuts. Its timber was used for virtually everything including telephone poles, fences, railroad ties, shingles, fine furniture and musical instruments.
A lethal fungus, accidentally imported from Asia in 1904, spread rapidly over the chestnut’s range. By 1950, all that remained in the fungi’s wake were huge, ghostlike trunks extending above the forest canopy.
The fungi killed the trees, but not the roots. Sprouts continue to grow from the roots, but the blight, surviving in oak trees, takes it toll on young chestnut trees. The fungi do not affect the oaks.
The American Chestnut Foundation, using volunteers like Tucker, have a breeding program under way to produce blight-resistant American chestnut trees. Tucker is caretaker of 243 American chestnut sprouts planted on an acre of land behind his house on Tucker Road in Bronston. The sprouts, growing rapidly, will be injected with the fungi that kill the trees to determine the resistance to the blight and find probably eight or 10 trees that are blight resistant.
The goal of The American Chestnut Foundation is to restore the American chestnut to eastern forests. Breeding orchards in affected states will produce blight-resistant American chestnuts suitable for each location.
Local News
Related Photos
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Arthur Tucker, retired lumber company owner and member of the Kentucky Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation, checks bagged flowers on an American chestnut tree sprout in Randall Albright’s front yard on Lost Lodge Road. The flowers were pollinated and enclosed in bags as part of an effort to produce a blight-resistant tree. Bill Mardis photo
Pulaski yard a lab for Chestnut tree experiment
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Big Bang Theory
Pulaski County is not at war. The booming you may hear at dusk is mock cannon fire to scare away birds.
Stuart Spillman, environmental director for the Lake Cumberland Health Department, said at least three cannons are on loan from the department to residents who want to scare away swarms of starlings and blackbirds settling in to roost.
He said a cannon is being used by a resident on Laura Lane off Ky. 39; another is in the Oak Hill Road area and a third is on Ashurst Street in the eastern part of Somerset.
Spillman said a timer on each cannon allows it to “fire” at whatever frequency is desired. The cannons must be used as the birds circle before going to roost. “After they settle in, nothing will chase them out,” Spillman said.
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The water controversy that Pulaski County has been boiling over — so to speak — for the last week is finally over.
At 10 minutes after noon Wednesday, the “boil water” advisory for the Western Pulaski Water District was lifted — almost a full week after the problems began around 1 p.m. last Thursday.
Prior to that, the Somerset Water Service — along with the other water providers in its system, including Science Hill Water, Southeastern Water, and Eubank Water — lifted their advisories, with Somerset on Saturday afternoon and the last, Southeastern, by Monday morning. Western Pulaski was the last in the system to complete sample testing for potential contaminants, due to not being able to access its Pikeville-based testing lab until Monday.
Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler thanked the public for its patience and understanding during the duration of the boil water advisory — put in place to keep citizens from drinking water that could have been contaminated after an accident last Thursday at the water plant site — and also thanked all the city employees for their hard work during this time.
“The boil water advisory went about as well as would be expected,” said Girdler.
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SCS to host Medal of Honor recipient
The message is clear: There are heroes. Even here in our own hometowns.
That’s the idea organizers hope to get across Saturday night at Somerset Christian School, when Congressional Medal of Honor winner Sgt. Dakota Meter speaks to all who choose to attend.
For further questions, ticket purchases, and sponsorship opportunities please contact Susan Adams at (606) 875-0255. -
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Rob McCullough, 50, who started working in a newspaper mailroom when he was 15, officially assumes his duties today. He succeeds Jack McNeely who has accepted a position with the Daily Mountain Eagle in Jasper, Alabama.
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