Pre-blight chestnut distribution

I was asked recently about the amount and distribution of American chestnut before the blight. To help answer this question I went to the report on the first scientific survey done across Virginia, Forest Survey Release No. 11, Virginia’s Forests, 1942 written by T. Lotti and T.C. Evans.

The data for this survey was collected from 31,400 quarter-acre plots established at intervals of one-eight mile on compass lines 10 miles apart. The report contains summary statistics for the three physiographic regions of Virginia: Mountains, Piedmont and Costal Plain.

Since the blight had killed almost all standing chestnuts before 1940, the document reports only dead chestnuts. No significant volume was reported for the Coastal Plain but the dead chestnut volume reported for the mountains was 16% of the total volume, and 25% of the volume in trees greater than 20 inches in diameter. In the Piedmont the total dead chestnut volume was less than 5% but nearly 22% of the volume in trees greater than 20 inches in diameter.

The map below has a dot for every plot that contained at least 2 sound or cull chestnut trees 10-inches dbh or greater. Some real differences in certain counties are apparent and some are a bit surprising to me.

Southern Forest Futures Project

I attended the Blacksburg, VA public input meeting for the Southern Forest Futures Project on February 26. This project is a follow-up to the very informative Southern Forest Resource Assessment published in 2002, and is being led by the same US Forest Service team of John Greis and David Wear. The project promises to be very useful for those interested in the health and sustainable management of Virginia's forests.

The futures project will develop a number of scenarios. Each scenario will represent possible states of the various forces of change (biological, climatic and human) for forests in the South. Land use and forest conditions will be forecast under each scenario. Analysis will address the implications of these forecasts on ecological sub-regions within the South.

The forests of Virginia fall within the Coastal Plain, Southern Appalachian Piedmont, and the Appalachian Mountains/Cumberland Plateau subregions being used in the analysis.

For more info, visit these websites.
Southern Forest Futures Project http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/futures/
Souther Forest Resource Assessment http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/sustain/