Rare American Chestnut Trees Found in Wild
Nathan Klaus with one of the American chestnuts he discovered. Open the image for a view of the tree's foliage.
Nathan Klaus with one of the American chestnuts he discovered. Open the image for a view of the tree's foliage.
Experts have confirmed that a cluster of trees found by a scientist hiking near Pine Mountain, Ga., are in fact American chestnut trees. But researchers say they have no idea how the trees escaped a blight in the early 1900s, which scientists thought had wiped out the entire U.S. population of the trees.
Biologists have been attempting to restore the tree for 15 years by referring to hardier Asian and European strains. Melissa Block talks with Nathan Klaus, a senior wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
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