Tree & Me: A Piece of History

Tree & Me is a storytelling series from Leaf & Limb. In each issue, we feature a personal story about trees from one of our readers. This month, our story was written by Rick from Raleigh.

---

A Piece of History

In 1982, we moved into our first home and found a tree in the backyard we couldn’t quite name. Big, old, commanding. We knew it was magnificent and left it at that.

A few weeks later, a man knocked on our door and asked if he could come take a look. He was a tree expert, and he had a reason for asking. That tree, he told us, was the third-largest American chestnut in the state of Wisconsin.

We had no idea what we had.

Before 1900, American chestnuts were the cornerstone of eastern forests. One in every four hardwood trees was a chestnut. Their nuts fed people, livestock, and wildlife through long winters, and their rot-resistant lumber built homes that still stand. Then a fungal blight arrived from Asia, and within 35 years (less than a single human lifetime!), the largest hardwood tree in the East was erased. Around 4 billion trees, gone.* The American chestnut became something close to a ghost.

Ours was still here.

Over the next 42 years, experts came to measure it, study it, and document its health. We remodeled the house three times, always toward the front, always to protect the roots.

We didn’t set out to be stewards of anything. We just bought a house. What we got was something rarer: one of the last living reminders of a forest the rest of the country had lost.

Note: Background on the American chestnut comes from From Wasteland to Wonder.

---

Have your own tree story?

Do you have a tree that holds a special place in your heart? Maybe it’s a childhood climbing tree, a backyard favorite, or one you planted in memory of someone you love.

Please share your story with us to celebrate the powerful connection between people and trees. You can do so by filling out the form below. Each month, we will select a new story to be featured in this “Tree & Me” series.