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#American chestnut tree
headspace-hotel · 7 months
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There, in the sunlit forest on a high ridgeline, was a tree I had never seen before.
I spend a lot of time looking at trees. I know my beech, sourwood, tulip poplar, sassafras and shagbark hickory. Appalachian forests have such a diverse tree community that for those who grew up in or around the ancient mountains, forests in other places feel curiously simple and flat.
Oaks: red, white, black, bur, scarlet, post, overcup, pin, chestnut, willow, chinkapin, and likely a few others I forgot. Shellbark, shagbark and pignut hickories. Sweetgum, serviceberry, hackberry, sycamore, holly, black walnut, white walnut, persimmon, Eastern redcedar, sugar maple, red maple, silver maple, striped maple, boxelder maple, black locust, stewartia, silverbell, Kentucky yellowwood, blackgum, black cherry, cucumber magnolia, umbrella magnolia, big-leaf magnolia, white pine, scrub pine, Eastern hemlock, redbud, flowering dogwood, yellow buckeye, white ash, witch hazel, pawpaw, linden, hornbeam, and I could continue, but y'all would never get free!
And yet, this tree is different.
We gather around the tree as though surrounding the feet of a prophet. Among the couple dozen of us, only a few are much younger than forty. Even one of the younger men, who smiles approvingly and compliments my sharp eye when I identify herbs along the trail, has gray streaking his beard. One older gentleman scales the steep ridge slowly, relying on a cane for support.
The older folks talk to us young folks with enthusiasm. They brighten when we can call plants and trees by name and list their virtues and importance. "You're right! That's Smilax." "Good eye!" "Do you know what this is?—Yes, Eupatorium, that's a pollinator's paradise." "Are you planning to study botany?"
The tree we have come to see is not like the tall and pillar-like oaks that surround us. It is still young, barely the diameter of a fence post. Its bark is gray and forms broad stripes like rivulets of water down smooth rock. Its smooth leaves are long, with thin pointed teeth along their edges. Some of the group carefully examine the bark down to the ground, but the tree is healthy and flourishing, for now.
This tree is among the last of its kind.
The wood of the American Chestnut was once used to craft both cradles and coffins, and thus it was known as the "cradle-to-grave tree." The tree that would hold you in entering this world and in leaving it would also sustain your body throughout your life: each tree produced a hundred pounds of edible nuts every winter, feeding humans and all the other creatures of the mountains. In the Appalachian Mountains, massive chestnut trees formed a third of the overstory of the forest, sometimes growing larger than six feet in diameter.
They are a keystone species, and this is my first time seeing one alive in the wild.
It's a sad story. But I have to tell you so you will understand.
At the turn of the 20th century, the chestnut trees of Appalachia were fundamental to life in this ecosystem, but something sinister had taken hold, accidentally imported from Asia. Cryphonectria parasitica is a pathogenic fungus that infects chestnut trees. It co-evolved with the Chinese chestnut, and therefore the Chinese chestnut is not bothered much by the fungus.
The American chestnut, unlike its Chinese sister, had no resistance whatsoever.
They showed us slides with photos of trees infected with the chestnut blight earlier. It looks like sickly orange insulation foam oozing through the bark of the trees. It looks like that orange powder that comes in boxes of Kraft mac and cheese. It looks wrong. It means death.
The chestnut plague was one of the worst ecological disasters ever to occur in this place—which is saying something. And almost no one is alive who remembers it. By the end of the 1940's, by the time my grandparents were born, approximately three to four billion American chestnut trees were dead.
The Queen of the Forest was functionally extinct. With her, at least seven moth species dependent on her as a host plant were lost forever, and no one knows how much else. She is a keystone species, and when the keystone that holds a structure in place is removed, everything falls.
Appalachia is still falling.
Now, in some places, mostly-dead trees tried to put up new sprouts. It was only a matter of time for those lingering sprouts of life.
But life, however weak, means hope.
I learned that once in a rare while, one of the surviving sprouts got lucky enough to successfully flower and produce a chestnut. And from that seed, a new tree could be grown. People searched for the still-living sprouts and gathered what few chestnuts could be produced, and began growing and breeding the trees.
Some people tried hybridizing American and Chinese chestnuts and then crossing the hybrids to produce purer American strains that might have some resistance to the disease. They did this for decades.
And yet, it wasn't enough. The hybrid trees were stronger, but not strong enough.
Extinction is inevitable. It's natural. There have been at least five mass extinctions in Earth's history, and the sixth is coming fast. Many people accepted that the American chestnut was gone forever. There had been an intensive breeding program, summoning all the natural forces of evolution to produce a tree that could survive the plague, and it wasn't enough.
This has happened to more species than can possibly be counted or mourned. And every species is forced to accept this reality.
Except one.
We are a difficult motherfucker of a species, aren't we? If every letter of the genome's book of life spelled doom for the Queen of the Forest, then we would write a new ending ourselves. Research teams worked to extract a gene from wheat and implant it in the American chestnut, in hopes of creating an American chestnut tree that could survive.
This project led to the Darling 58, the world's first genetically modified organism to be created for the purpose of release into the wild.
The Darling 58 chestnut is not immune, the presenters warned us. It does become infected with the blight. And some trees die. But some live.
And life means hope.
In isolated areas, some surviving American Chestnut trees have been discovered, most of them still very young. The researchers hope it is possible that some of these trees may have been spared not because of pure luck, but because they carry something in their genes that slows the blight in doing its deadly work, and that possibly this small bit of innate resistance can be shaped and combined with other efforts to create a tree that can live to grow old.
This long, desperate, multi-decade quest is what has brought us here. The tree before me is one such tree: a rare survivor. In this clearing, a number of other baby chestnut trees have been planted by human hands. They are hybrids of the Darling 58 and the best of the best Chinese/American hybrids. The little trees are as prepared for the blight as we can possibly make them at this time. It is still very possible that I will watch them die. Almost certainly, I will watch this tree die, the one that shades us with her young, stately limbs.
Some of the people standing around me are in their 70's or 80's, and yet, they have no memory of a world where the Queen of the Forest was at her full majesty. The oldest remember the haunting shapes of the colossal dead trees looming as if in silent judgment.
I am shaken by this realization. They will not live to see the baby trees grow old. The people who began the effort to save the American chestnut devoted decades of their lives to these little trees, knowing all the while they likely never would see them grow tall. Knowing they would not see the work finished. Knowing they wouldn't be able to be there to finish it. Knowing they wouldn't be certain if it could be finished.
When the work began, the technology to complete it did not exist. In the first decades after the great old trees were dead, genetic engineering was a fantasy.
But those that came before me had to imagine that there was some hope of a future. Hope set the foundation. Now that little spark of hope is a fragile flame, and the torch is being passed to the next generation.
When a keystone is removed, everything suffers. What happens when a keystone is put back into place? The caretakers of the American chestnut hope that when the Queen is restored, all of Appalachia will become more resilient and able to adapt to climate change.
Not only that, but this experiment in changing the course of evolution is teaching us lessons and skills that may be able to help us save other species.
It's just one tree—but it's never just one tree. It's a bear successfully raising cubs, chestnut bread being served at a Cherokee festival, carbon being removed from the atmosphere and returned to the Earth, a wealth of nectar being produced for pollinators, scientific insights into how to save a species from a deadly pathogen, a baby cradle being shaped in the skilled hands of an Appalachian crafter. It's everything.
Despair is individual; hope is an ecosystem. Despair is a wall that shuts out everything; hope is seeing through a crack in that wall and catching a glimpse of a single tree, and devoting your life to chiseling through the wall towards that tree, even if you know you will never reach it yourself.
An old man points to a shaft of light through the darkness we are both in, toward a crack in the wall. "Do you see it too?" he says. I look, and on the other side I see a young forest full of sunlight, with limber, pole-size chestnut trees growing toward the canopy among the old oaks and hickories. The chestnut trees are in bloom with fuzzy spikes of creamy white, and bumblebees heavy with pollen move among them. I tell the man what I see, and he smiles.
"When I was your age, that crack was so narrow, all I could see was a single little sapling on the forest floor," he says. "I've been chipping away at it all my life. Maybe your generation will be the one to finally reach the other side."
Hope is a great work that takes a lifetime. It is the hardest thing we are asked to do, and the most essential.
I am trying to show you a glimpse of the other side. Do you see it too?
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typhlonectes · 2 years
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The Biggest American Chestnut He’d Ever Seen
In November 2019 an exciting discovery connected the Delaware Nature Society (DelNature) with a past that few of us had known. Bret Lanan was hunting deer in a remote corner of our Coverdale Farm Preserve in Greenville when his keen eyes spotted what he suspected was a mature American chestnut tree. He alerted DelNature Land Steward Dave Pro, who quickly assembled our staff and Bill McAvoy, the state botanist. 
Bill confirmed that it was indeed a healthy American chestnut (Castanea dentata)! He excitedly declared it to be the biggest one he’d ever seen. Based on its diameter, he estimated it to be at least 50 years old...
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seabeck · 2 months
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One of my American chestnuts sprouted!!!
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kundst · 2 months
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Mary Cassatt (US 1844-1926) Under the Horse Chestnut Tree (1897) Drypoint and aquatint on green paper
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trick and/or treat!
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Happy Halloween!!
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jadafitch · 2 years
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It’s hard to believe that one in four trees in the eastern US used to be an American chestnut.  Last year I ordered a sapling, and it just came in the mail this week.  Excited to have one in my yard, and hoping it makes it to 500 years.  
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james-in-pace · 11 months
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Land of Fraxinus, Populous, Quercus & Acer - A dream of mine.
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muirneach · 6 months
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sitting around on a sunday afternoon contemplating what my top all time tree species are
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xtruss · 7 months
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Environment: Death Cap Mushrooms are Extremely Deadly—and They’re Spreading
The Invasive Death Cap Mushroom is thriving in North America. While it can be difficult to distinguish from an edible one, make no mistake: It can do a number on you.
— By Emily Martin | August 31, 2023
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The Death Cap is the World's Deadliest Fungus, responsible for 90 percent of the World's Mushroom-related Poisonings every year. Native to Europe, Death Caps have spread around the World over the past Century. Photograph By Yves Lanceau/Nature Picture Library
The name itself is both alarming and self-explanatory: the death cap mushroom.
Scientifically known as Amanita phalloides, death caps are responsible for 90 percent of the mushroom-related fatalities that occur every year, making them the world’s most lethal mushroom. The infamous fungus was recently in the news after three people in Australia died after ingesting what investigators suspect were death caps.
The mushroom originates from the U.K. and parts of Ireland, but over the past century, it has hijacked trips around the world, spreading to Australia and North America.
Since arriving on the West Coast, the invasive mushroom has spread rapidly throughout California and has even appeared as far north as British Columbia, but much about its arrival remains a mystery. Why the mushroom spread so quickly, when exactly it arrived, and how it will impact the environment it grows in are the topics of ongoing research.
Here’s what you need to know about this deadly mushroom—and how to spot one—in case it emerges in a forest near you.
How The Mushroom Earned Its Name
The unassuming mushroom can grow up to six inches tall with a similarly sized domed cap, sometimes tinged yellow or green. Under its cap are white gills and an off-white stem—characteristics that make it difficult to distinguish from an edible mushroom.
Yet unlike an edible mushroom, it can cause extreme damage to the liver and kidneys, or in some cases, death.
That’s because the mushrooms contain a unique set of toxins, says U.S. Department of Agriculture plant pathologist Milton Drott. Though it is safe to the touch, a death cap contains amatoxins, which prevent cells from creating proteins, ultimately causing cell death and organ failure.
Drott notes that these toxins may have allowed the populations spreading through the U.S. to thrive, serving up a defense against any new predators the fungus encounters in its environment.
But studying the death cap mushroom can be difficult. It’s challenging to replicate ideal environmental conditions for a mushroom in a lab, and studying plucked mushrooms requires complex DNA sequencing.
Some fungi can damage the environment, like the fungus that wiped out American Chestnut trees, but so far, there’s no strong evidence that death caps are a threat to their new environments. In fact, trees and other plants benefit from their presence.
Death caps are a mycorrhizal fungi, which means they form a relationship with plants that’s mutually beneficial for both plant and fungus. The plant receives nutrients from the soil that the fungus extracts, while the fungus receives sugars from the plant.
A Mysterious Move Around The World
It’s nearly impossible to pinpoint the actual moment the deadly mushroom made its way to the western U.S. and why exactly it’s continued to spread since then, says Anne Pringle, a mycologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a leading expert on death caps.
The earliest record of the mushroom in California is from the 1930s. Some researchers theorize that death caps immigrated in the soil of a cork tree transported from Europe to California to make corks for a then burgeoning wine industry. Others say the mushroom may have hitched a ride on a mystery plant imported to beautify college campuses.
Regardless, both Pringle and Drott say the only thing they’re certain of is that the fungus was likely dormant—and thus hidden from human eyes—in an imported plant’s soil.
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Scientifically known as Amanita Phalliodes—Death Caps were first spotted in California in the 1930s. Some scientists think they were imported in the soil of cork trees, used to make corks for California's wine makers.
“When they planted that tree in the ground, they also effectively planted the fungus. So, what exactly is the smoking gun, who did it, and when—that's the thing I think we'll never truly know,” Pringle says.
Pringle can’t say for sure what makes the state such a friendly habitat for the invasive species, but she does note that the fungus can tolerate different environments throughout Europe, growing as far north as Sweden and as far south as southern France.
Since arriving, Pringle says its geographic extent has grown larger and spread to other States; most recently it appeared in Idaho.
Retracing Their Steps
When scientists first spotted death caps in the U.S., they thought they may be native to the region because of how widespread they are.
In 2009, Pringle was the first to label the population in California as invasive, a discovery she made by inspecting the mushrooms’ DNA.
“When they planted that tree in the ground, they also effectively planted the fungus. So what exactly is the smoking gun, who did it and when, that's the thing I think we'll never truly know.”
— Anne Pringle
And when scientists did realize the death cap had newly spread into the U.S., there wasn’t any preexisting data to provide clues about where exactly it entered North America and how quickly it multiplied.
“There's so many ideas to test, it’s hard to even know where to get started,” Pringle says.
Research on invasive fungi in the environment is quite new, Pringle says, so answers to questions of why death caps are spreading and its impact on local ecosystems may still be years away.
Drott thinks the mushroom may be proliferating because it thrives in its new soil and with its adoptive plants, or there may be a lack of predators in these new habitats to keep death cap populations in check.
His research has revealed at least one clue: the genes responsible for producing toxins in American death caps are extremely unique, distinct from their genetic cousins in Europe, and may be the key to understanding how the invasive plant has thrived in North America.
Earlier this year, scientists published preliminary research suggesting the death cap can reproduce both with and without a mate, and that a single fungus can live a long, reproductive life.
Encountering A Death Cap
Spotting a death cap requires vigilance.
“It’s scary that these [pass for] delicious mushrooms,” Drott says.
He adds that, in addition to an unalarming physical appearance, the death caps’ toxins don’t smell or provide any other obvious giveaways. Its toxins are also extremely stable when heated and don’t break down when cooked, unlike other edible fungi that are only dangerous to eat raw.
That’s why scientists suggest erring on the side of caution and steering clear of foraging mushrooms. Pringle also emphasizes the importance of learning the plants in your local environment.
“If you can tell the difference between Swiss chard and spinach, you can learn difference between edible and poisonous mushrooms,” Pringle says, emphasizing the small but recognizable differences between the two greens. “People want a magic rule, but there’s nothing I can hand you in a sentence or paragraph."
Rather, she says identifying physical differences between death caps and a safe mushroom can become easier with exposure.
Spreading Awareness
Many death caps have been found in National Parks, including Point Reyes National Seashore in California, where Pringle assisted with a study on the invasion in 2010.
National Park Service (NPS) science advisor Ben Becker notes that parks are constantly seeing new invasive species with the frequent movement of people and equipment, and the death cap is a good example of how humans can transport tiny fungal invaders around the world.
Becker says NPS works with local mushroom science groups like the Bay Area Mycological Society to spread public awareness about the dangers of foraging mushrooms.
If you’re concerned about something you have eaten, go to the emergency room and if possible, take pieces of the mushroom you ate for identification.
And as many foragers and scientists say, don’t munch on a hunch.
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remember-redbeard · 1 year
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Please listen to literally any episode of This is Love if you need to feel grounded to the tender ness & wonder of the world.
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headspace-hotel · 3 months
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The most "???????" thing I found in r/collapse though was a thread talking about the "extinction" of the American Chestnut tree...the whole thing, but in particular this fucking comment
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the implication that right after the blight started, "settlers" suddenly got the idea of cutting down all the trees. Does this person think a tree has to be already dead to be cut down for wood?
"there was no breeding project or attempt at all at saving them" shut up. just shut up. i beg
"University extensions are encouraging people to cut down healthy ash trees so they can sell the timber" ..."they?" The university extensions?
So for context, the American chestnut is NOT extinct, it has been the subject of intensive breeding programs with a broad and robust genetic base for decades, genetic engineering has been used to create trees with blight resistance that are now being planted and the work is continuing, I have had the privilege of speaking with some of the people that have devoted their entire lives to saving this tree, and let me FUCKING tell you, the eighty-year-old gentleman walking with a cane did not hobble painstakingly up a mountain to the chestnut grove for some dumbass to say "boohoo so sad that there were no breeding programs for american chestnut tree"
I cannot even describe how humbling it was to hear the old folks speak about the decades they worked to save the American Chestnut tree, long before the technology now being used to create blight resistant trees even EXISTED. It is a quest that will take multiple human lifetimes to complete, the people that began it will never see the trees grow old, but they made it their life's mission anyway.
I'm just...unable to understand why someone would say something like that. How could someone be so attached to their sad, dismal fantasy of apocalypse that they either fail to learn about, or outright lie about, a much more beautiful truth????
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LOOK AT HER, YOU BITCH.
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aerinis · 2 years
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:/ they just confirmed the presence of emerald ash borers in Oregon... big F for the Oregon ash
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nobrashfestivity · 6 months
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Charles E. Burchfield Summer Solstice (In Memory of the American Chestnut Tree) 1961-66
watercolor on paper
54 x 60 inches
Image from the Burchfield Penney Art Center Archives
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disillusioneddanny · 7 months
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Spread the Love Fic Recs <3
There's been a bunch of negativity lately and I think that means we as a fandom need to spread some love around. If you get tagged please add some fics that you think deserve more love, only request is that they aren't insanely popular fics (think like fics with less than 50k hits) this way we can get some other fics out there for others to read and enjoy!!
1.) Premeditation by Chromatographic (Lia)
The problem is that so few people are even able to see what the problem really is. The problem is that things that manage to find the balance on the knife’s edge of life are so, so hard to kill. The problem, Jasmine Fenton realizes, two weeks after she moves into Gotham, is one that almost no one, in any dimension or realm, is able to solve. The problem is simply put, though, even if it’s almost impossible. The problem is this: The Joker is a Halfa.
this fic has the hardcover ship (Jazz/Jason) and everlasting trio (danny/sam/tucker) it's beautifully written and keeps you on the edge of your seat as you watch the story progress. Absolutely amazing. The writing is just amazing, Chroma sucks you in with beautiful storyline that just blows my mind. And the ending is just absolutely perfect!
2.) Halves by TourettesDog
Jason wasn't sure why Dick thought it was a good idea to drag him along with Tim to Amity Park. His brother seemed to think the strange case would offer a decent opportunity to bond-- without Gotham (and Bruce) close at hand, perhaps it wasn't the worst idea he'd ever had. Unfortunately, Amity Park is far stranger than Dick anticipated, and Jason hasn't quite been himself since they arrived. Going to FentonWorks for answers was their first big mistake.
honestly one of my favorite fics atm, I just love Gothamites going to Amity Park, i'm just such a sucker for the idea and we just don't see it enough so this fic is just my dream come true!
3.) Pitch-Dark Shades by SummersSixEcho
Danny Fenton is trying to build a new life in Gotham after closing up the connections to the Ghost Zone. Not that all connections are entirely broken, still being able to perceive shades and give them strength when he connects to one of their prized objects. Tim Drake is trying to find his own place in the world, focusing on becoming a better detective by solving cold cases in his spare time. When Tim and Danny meet, a new (begrudging) partnership starts to bloom to solve even the hardest of cases. Or it would if only they told each other the truth.
I truly just love Danny and Tim together in literally any kind of capacity. They just cause so much chaos together and it's amazing. This fic is just absolutely lovely and the prose is amazing. Summers fics are truly enrapturing and just pull you in so easily.
4.) Beneath A Different Light by AKelaNakamura, SummersSixEcho, TourettesDog
When a convergent event hits unexpectedly, Damian and Danny find themselves in the last place they’d expected: In the body of the twin they’d thought long dead. With the after effects still coursing through them and danger lurking in both cities, the brothers must figure out who they can trust—all while slowly learning about the life their twin has led without them. Or, none of these bastards can catch a break.
Demon twins. Just--just Demon Twins my beloved. This fic is two chapters in and i'm just so utterly in love with it. Summers, Akela, and Dog are just a match made in heaven when it comes to cowriting a fic. The fic just yanks you in so easily and you find yourself thinking about it even after reading the fic. Just a wonderful fic!
5.) Come Little Children by Die_Erlkonigin6083
American Chestnuts were once one of the most important trees along the East Coast. The blight destroyed most of them, but not all of them. There was one chestnut tree, one that entranced a child, and then, what it wrought, enchanted an entire city or two
YALL when i tell you that the storytelling in this is absolutely breathtaking I'm serious. This fic has brought a tear to my eye because of just how beautifully it's written. It's got cool fantasy aspects to it, it's based off of an old fairy tale, it's just so amazing and it's one of my favorite fics to reread if i'm having a bad day. Just truly a lovely fic.
Now, I would like to see @halfagone @spite-sapphic-starlight @noir-renard and @midnightenigma recommend some of their favorite fics if they're willing <3333 let's spread some more love in this fandom!
also even if you aren't tagged--please feel free to recommend any fics you enjoy!!
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henk-heijmans · 1 year
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Chestnut trees, 1953 - Thomas D. McAvoy (1905 - 1966), American
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The inhabitants of North and South America had grand cities, expansive agricultural fields, large-scale irrigation, and huge earthworks, including agricultural terracing, residential platforms above floodplain aquaculture works, and massive religious mounds —some in the shapes of animals. Near present-day St. Louis, one can still climb the central mound of the corn-crazy metropolis of Cahokia, a London-sized city that flourished from about A.D. 950 to 1250. And nearly everywhere people had a way with fire. Many North American groups used fire to clear areas to promote new green growth, which would in turn attract grazing animals that could be hunted. The Haudenosaunee, for example, burned Manhattan every fall. Many American prairies and grasslands thought to be “natural” were in fact artifacts of Indian land management.
In the east of North America, for hundreds of years before Europeans arrived, people supplemented their maize crops by using fire and tree planting to create orchards. These orchards have now mostly melted back into the forest but can still be picked out by their high concentrations of chestnuts, walnuts, pecans, hickory, and the like.
Emma Marris, Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World
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