Champion: The Comeback Tale of the American Chestnut Tree

American chestnut trees once grew widely in eastern North American forests, where they provided food and shelter for people and animals. This account explains how a fungus destroyed most of them during the early twentieth century and how scientists identified the cause. It follows three efforts to restore the species: inoculating trees with a milder fungus, breeding American and blight-resistant Chinese chestnuts, and introducing wheat genes into embryos to counter the fungus’s oxalic acid. The book describes both the history of the loss and the scientific work directed toward recovery.