Dow Jones News Service 8/19/2012
Excerpt: “Scientists are on the brink of engineering a blight-resistant American chestnut tree, renewing hope for a comeback of a long-celebrated species that is valued by business for its sturdy hardwood.
For the first time, techniques used to genetically engineer sturdier farm crops are being tapped to bring back a devastated native species–one that once numbered in the billions and covered much of the East Coast. Entire forests were laid to waste by an Asian fungus introduced around 1900, and healthy chestnuts now exist only in a smattering of places in the American West, where the blight didn’t reach. ….”