51–60 of 90 posts
The range of the chestnut tree surprises me it's so limited. Almost US only except for southern Ontario. The tree is not southern, not northern not even mid-western it's pretty much a mid-Appalachian tree.
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> But I would not cry if the biting mosquito that spreads disease, the bacteria that causes wet dog smell, and Cryphonectria parasitica went extinct never to appear again. Remember when Mao tried that with evil evil sparrows stealing seeds from the party and caused the greatest famine in human history? Fun times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign
Is there consensus on how significant the sparrow thing was to the famine? I would have guessed that the whole “you’re not allowed to have your own farms any more, you now have to work in these farms, but you don’t get to keep any of the food from these farms” thing was a much more significant cause.
If a company screws up. It goes out of business. Others will take its place. If a government screws up, oh well.
I recently bought a house in a wooded area. In the backyard was a large old tree that I could not identify. After much searching I figured out that it was a chestnut tree! The article says they are the "perfect tree", but the chestnuts are incredibly sharp and tough. Very painful to step on.
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I hate leaf-miners with a passion. I planted a bunch of citrus trees a while ago, and citrus leaf-miners ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllocnistis_citrella ) took a great liking to them. They nearly killed a few of the trees – and this is in a backyard with me attending to them pretty much every day. I hate to think of the industrial-scale agricultural damage these little jerks must inflict on commercial citrus o…
I once had the opportunity to talk with some apple growers in Washington (state). They said that they regularly sprayed their trees with a mix of water and soft detergent early in the season, to prevent parasites and larvae from taking hold. As I understood it, they viewed soap as a simple solution. It was not completely organic and natural, but it helped to keep pests away and it did not seem to cause undue harm to…
The second year of the leaf-miners, I would go out there every morning and look for affected leaves, just so I could squish the little bugger inside the leaf before it could become an adult moth. It was satisfying, but never really helped.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But I would not cry if the biting mosquito that spreads disease, the bacteria that causes wet dog smell, and Cryphonectria parasitica went extinct never to appear again. Remember when Mao tried that with evil evil sparrows stealing seeds from the party and caused the greatest famine in human history? Fun times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign
Not all mosquito spread disease or bite humans and the ones that do are not a major part of important ecosystems. When DEET was used heavily it didn't collapse any ecosystems. If we eliminate those species, the non-spreaders will fill the niche while eliminating major human suffering. It is not comparable to killing any sparrow sized bird.
I agree that erradicating bad mosquitos feels like a win, but I personally don’t know if there’s any unforeseen effects.
This is exciting. The American Chestnut is an amazing tree that once grew with trunks as wide as a car. The article did not mention that once the blight was discovered, there was somewhat of a panic to harvest them, which rather reduced the genetic diversity and ruined the possibility of any natural resistance. The horrendous effect our species has on the diversity of life is incredibly sad, re: Dodos and Carrier Pig…
> But I would not cry if the biting mosquito that spreads disease, the bacteria that causes wet dog smell, and Cryphonectria parasitica went extinct never to appear again. Remember when Mao tried that with evil evil sparrows stealing seeds from the party and caused the greatest famine in human history? Fun times. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign
Fun times.
It would be wonderful for the Chinese chestnut to get the spotlight it deserves!
Very interesting article. I wonder about the second and third order effects of genetic engineering, but I would say I’m optimistic about a tree that’s engineered to survive a blight, whereas engineering crops so they can survive being soaked in cancer-causing poison that kills everything else in the field —- and then eating them —- seems far more concerning.
The toxin only affects insects which actually eat the corn, so it shouldn't be contributing to the alarming crash in insect population we've been seeing worldwide.
If chestnut trees were wiped out by 1940, that means Mel Tormé & Bob Wells, writing The Christmas Song in 1946 ("chestnuts roasting on an open fire"), were already being nostalgic.
It is highly likely that Mel Tormé and Bob Wells were roasting the east Asian chestnuts over the open fire.
EDIT: And I just found out that Bob Wells was born in Raymond, Washington. So it is entirely likely that the chestnuts that he picket and roasted in his youth were similar to the once you can pick today in the Pacific North West.
Under a spreading chestnut-tree The village smithy stands; The smith, a mighty man is he, With large and sinewy hands; And the muscles of his brawny arms Are strong as iron bands. -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
I'm intruiged as to your take on how this ties into this.
Longfellow was fond of trees. One fragment of his poetry I will always remember is "This is the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks", which my main lesson teacher in elementary school taught us as an example of dactylic hexameter. It is also the first verse of Evangeline, probably his best known poem in his lifetime. Now largely forgotten, which is a pity.