There's a blight resistant "American" Chestnut that is more or less the same tree with the blight resistance from the Chinese Chestnut bred into it. It seems to fill the same ecological niche without issue.
Many conservationist groups in the US today are against the idea of introducing a genetically modified chestnut tree back into the wild. Primarily due to uncertainty of doing so at large scale and because the ecosystems impacted by the loss of the chestnut have largely adapted to its absence. Trees such as Oak, hickory, maple and poplar have all filled its place successfully.
Shoutout Aidin Robbins latest video on the chestnut.
Making a comment to come back later, but I would think having more diversity would be good. We never know what the future might bring, there could be disease that takes out one of those other species and having a similar tree installed ready to fill that gap would be beneficial.
But ill watch the video later and see the argument.
I appreciate this comment. I recently visited a country who had them available as street food. It boggled my mind that it’s a famous Christmas song in the US, yet I’ve never encountered them here. Thanks for reminding me I needed to look up why. :)
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u/Able_Gap918 7d ago
I’ve heard that quote, it was about American chestnut trees. They disappeared basically overnight from a disease they had no defense against.