An old chestnut

Sometimes it seems like we might have to change the old saying to "you can't see the forest for the disease."
Trees still spread their branches over a large portion of the Twin Counties, but many face a growing number of health-related issues — issues that could considerably impact the economy and the beauty of the region.
The news isn't all bad, however.
Gypsy months continue their swarm of destruction, flying into parts of Carroll County. Gypsy moth caterpillars are said to cause $22 million in damage to trees a year by slowly and inexorably chomping down on the leaves of deciduous hardwoods at night until they're stripped down.
Female moths get too fat to fly and they wait for the males to find them, reproduce and die.
Many scientists, including those at Virginia Tech, are working to slow the spread of the moths to only 6,000 square miles by confusing the males with fake pheromones
The Twin Counties have seen its stout hemlock trees ravaged by the woolly adelgid, a leaf bore.
Whole swaths of forests in the Twin Counties have been turned from healthy green to dull brown as the hemlocks, said to be one of the better trees for use in log cabin construction, get attacked.
Virginia appears to be bearing the brunt of the woolly adelgid invasion on the East Coast, with more counties affected than any other state.
The dogwood — both Virginia's state tree and flower — faces a raft of challenges from fungi, especially anthracnose, which continues to spread along the Appalachian Mountain chain through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina.
Even the might oaks can be felled. The Daily Press of Hampton Roads recently reported that forestry personnel were baffled by widespread deaths among oak stands in eastern Virginia.
Trees died, dried up, apparently overnight, landowners reported to foresters. Others lived.
Researchers had no concrete conclusions about the causes behind these deaths, but could only conjecture that they resulted from stress related to weather over the long term.
Virginia Department of Forestry officials told the newspaper that first the drought, followed by heavy rains associated with Hurricane Isabel and then this year's heatwave were too much for the trees in the end.
Water rotted the roots in the ground and eventually killed many trees.
People out West have to worry about Sudden Oak Death. Scientists believe a fungus-like organism related to the one that caused the Irish potato famine has led to significant die offs in coastal California.
Foresters and others in Virginia and other parts of the country are on high alert to keep this disease from spreading to our area.
Tree diseases left a big scar on the forests of the Twin Counties when a blight decimated the American Chestnut tree.
The stout chestnut covered the mountains, with its white blooms making the Appalachians look snow-capped, according to the American Chestnut Foundation.
A good tree for lumber, the tree was used for telegraph poles, railroad ties, shingles, paneling, fine furniture, musical instruments, even pulp and plywood, and the nuts added to the mountain economy as a cash crop besides.
The foundation set out to make sure the American chestnut flourishes again by genetically crossing it with the disease-resistant Chinese variety.
A research farm is located in Meadowview, but work to revive the chestnuts also takes place in the Twin Counties.
Chestnut trees grow in the Matthews State Forest and on private land around here.
Researchers report success in developing healthy trees that resemble the American chestnut of old. They believe a highly disease resistant variety will be available within five years, but the full breeding project could take as much as 50 more years.
People can help with the research and the restoration of chestnuts by becoming members of the foundation.
For more information, visit the foundation's Web site at http://www.acf.org/.
The health of trees is a quality of life issue for the Twin Counties' residents. We can't afford to lose our trees to another plague.

* Originally published in August 2005.