Chestnut tree rallying from brink of extinction

Contributed Photo DR. COLIN MCKEEN, right, and his wife Beatrice in Nova Scotia with an American chestnut tree trunk between them. Saving the endangered tree is a mission for Dr. McKeen. Many of us have never been aware of a tree species' battle for survival that has been waged in our midst for over half a century. But Orangeville's Dr. Colin McKeen has been serving in the vanguard all along.

At 91, Dr. McKeen is still deeply involved in the preservation of the American chestnut tree, which has been suffering from the effects of chestnut blight fungus for over 100 years and - at one point in the 1950s - was on the endangered species list.

Dr. McKeen hails from Strathroy, north of London, and graduated with a B.A. in botany from the University of Western Ontario. He then went on to receive a Ph.D. in plant pathology from the University of Toronto.

He dedicated his career to researching and eradicating plant disease. In 1988, retired and into his 70s, Dr. McKeen became involved with the Canadian Chestnut Council (CCC), a charitable organization aimed at the preservation and development of the American chestnut.

And he's still hard at work today. "I've never regretted what I've tried to do," he says. "When I was attending the collegiate institute in Strathroy, the chestnut trees would grow in the sandy soil of the area.

"I chomped on those nuts in high school. I've been familiar with the tree for over 75 years."

Believed to have been brought from China, the chestnut blight fungus was first observed killing trees in the Bronx Zoo in New York in 1904.

It spread rapidly across the entire natural range of the chestnut, and reached southern Ontario in the early 1920s.

By the 1930s, almost all American chestnut trees were infected and dying. By 1950, this once prevalent tree species of the eastern forests was reduced to the status of a threatened species.

Dr. McKeen notes that the chestnut isn't the only tree subject to deadly infestation. Hardwood species such as the ash and the maple are under attack by borer insects, and many remember the ravages of Dutch Elm Disease in the early 70s.

Dr. McKeen says trees such as the chestnut should be maintained because of their commercial viability, as well as out of compassion.

In its heyday, the strong, weather-resistant chestnut had a plethora of uses, from furniture to railway tracks.

"I don't want to see my grandchildren relying on plastics because none of these hardwoods are left," says Dr. McKeen.

There are mature chestnut trees thriving in North America, but they are horse chestnuts, a different species, and do not possess the physical properties to be commercially viable.

Still, the work of Dr. McKeen and his colleagues has not been in vain.

They are creating a crossbreed of American and oriental chestnut trees and the new strain is proving to be much more resistant to the blight.

In fact, the new trees may be heartier than their forebears, which were rarely known to grow north of the southern tip of Lake Huron.

"We've been successful in expanding the range," says Dr. McKeen. "We have chestnuts growing in Owen Sound, Thornbury, right here in Dufferin County and as far north as Sault Ste. Marie."

As well, nature is playing a role through hypovirulence - viral agents that attack the blight that attacks the trees. It has been successful in the battle against the blight in Europe, but Dr. McKeen says "it doesn't work as well here.

"It still has its function, though.

This is a time, he says, when nature and man have to work hand-in-hand.

"Some scientists say 'let nature take its course.' I say 'do you want to wait a thousand years?' I don't want to live in a desert."