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One from the archives (first broadcast on June 5th, 2019): Dr. Jared Westbrook of the American Chestnut Foundation explores a controversial subject: the use of genetic engineering by his foundation to create blight-resistant American chestnut trees and return this once iconic species to the eastern woodlands. Called “the redwood of the East” chestnuts grew to a diameter of a dozen feet or more, and their nuts were an essential food for wildlife and an important source of income to rural people. One of the most plentiful hardwoods of the eastern forest, American chestnuts were nearly extirpated by an imported blight, but the American Chestnut Foundation is dedicated to their re-introduction.
