A brief history of "chestnut blight" in North America

Pages 12-13 from The Overstory, by Richard Powers, which I have briefly reviewed in a separate post.  There are of course entire books on this subject, but I thought this page brought the disaster into shart focus.  The chestnut blight was one of the greatest ecologic disasters ever to hit North America.

And I've just discovered that the world's largest remaining stand of genetically pure, mature American chestnut trees is near West Salem, Wisconsin.  I believe that's the town where one of my aunts was born.  Perhaps I can find an excuse to visit the trees this summer.