{"id":37053,"date":"2021-03-03T13:25:14","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T18:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/?p=37053"},"modified":"2021-09-01T14:17:25","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T18:17:25","slug":"students-help-with-chestnut-tree-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/2021\/03\/students-help-with-chestnut-tree-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Help with Chestnut Tree Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four EMS students supported an effort to help re-introduce the American Chestnut tree to U.S. soil on a recent chilly Saturday morning in a mountain forest in Hopkins Gap, Virginia, near Gospel Hill Church.<\/span><\/p>\n

The student volunteers, who have all been active in the school\u2019s sustainability<\/a> and service efforts, were Elisabeth Fink \u201922, Karla Hostetter \u201921, Halie Mast \u201921, and Sidney Rhodes \u201922. They joined former EMS science teacher Lee Good on the outing. Loren Hostetter, originally from Harrisonburg and father of former EMS students,\u00a0 is overseeing the tree research. <\/span><\/p>\n

Hostetter\u2019s research grows out of his long-time passion for trees and natural resource conservation. He is currently<\/span> based in Kenya, working for the Canadian Food Grains Bank, and returns to Harrisonburg to visit family. Hostetter contacted Good for EMS student involvement in his research in Virginia. The 36 seedlings planted by the group were placed on land owned by Hostetter\u2019s extended family. See extensive additional coverage<\/a> on The Citizen and un art\u00edculo<\/a> in Anabaptist World.<\/span><\/p>\n

The enormous, majestic American Chestnut once \u201creigned over 200 million acres of eastern woodlands from Maine to Florida, and from the Piedmont plateau in the Carolinas west to the Ohio Valley,\u201d according to The American Chestnut Foundation<\/a>. The trees fell to a lethal fungus infestation, known as the chestnut\u00a0blight, during the first half of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe seedlings we planted are from survivors of the blight,\u201d explained Good.\u00a0 The seedlings are from fewer than 20 known mature trees that have survived the blight, Hostetter told the group. Seeds from these trees have been collected, planted in nurseries, and are being transplanted to appropriate locations.<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe seedlings have been bred to encourage the genes that allowed a few trees to survive the blight to be emphasized, without introducing genes from other species of chestnut, such as the Chinese Chestnut,\u201d reported Good.<\/div>\n
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Hostetter hopes that in the near future, Shenandoah National Park will allow trees to be planted in the park, and begin the process of reintroducing a tree whose absence has profoundly impacted forest ecosystems. \u201cThis isn\u2019t actually really connected to my professional work,\u201d writes Hostetter. \u201cIt\u2019s just a passion to plant and restore, and wonderful to include EMS students in the effort.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four EMS students supported an effort to help re-introduce the American Chestnut tree to U.S. soil on a recent chilly Saturday morning in a mountain forest in Hopkins Gap, Virginia, near Gospel Hill Church. The student volunteers, who have all been active in the school\u2019s sustainability and service efforts, were Elisabeth Fink \u201922, Karla Hostetter\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":37051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[133,69,45,19,333],"class_list":["post-37053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","tag-emhs","tag-high-school","tag-service","tag-stem","tag-sustainability"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37053"}],"curies":[{"name":"gracias","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}