Sprout Fall 04 P6

Gilmer High School Students to Work on Oral History Project
The Interact and Octagon Clubs of Gilmer High School, located in Ellijay, Georgia, are beginning a student Oral History Project under the direction of their sponsors, Dr. Mark Stallings, a science teacher, and Ms. Lucy Harris, an English teacher. The first part of the project will involve interview training for the students involved, location of people who experienced the American Chestnut Culture, and recording of their stories. The ultimate goal is to publish these true accounts as part of the history of the American Chestnut Tree. During the first part of the project, students will receive training on how to conduct the interviews by using scripts and actually observing live interviews. Each interview will be	audio and video recorded with full permission granted by the interviewees. The audio portion will be transcribed and edited and formatted into a manuscript form suitable for possible publication. A list of possible interviewees has been initiated, and we would appreciate any additions from our members. The video portion will be edited and used as part of a half-hour special on ETC TV3 as part of the Education Matters series, which highlights the importance of education to the mountain communities. The work of these students will be highlighted on this special program as well as provide the Oral History participants the opportunity to tell their stories about how the American Chestnut tree	affected their lives and what happened after the blight. The students involved in this project range in age from tenth grade to twelfth grade at Gilmer High School and are already involved in a wide variety of projects in their school and community. The Interact Club of Gilmer High School is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Gilmer County, and the Octagon Club is sponsored by the Cartecay Optimist Club. The sponsor of the Interact Club is Dr. Mark Stallings and the sponsor of the Octagon Club is Ms. Lucy Harris. You may contact Dr. Stallings at mark_30512@yahoo.com or mstallings@gilmerschools.com with any information about the project.
The Magnificent American Chestnut Tree by Harris Green
If you lived in Big Canoe a hundred years ago, in the early summer you would have seen ridge tops "snowcapped with the creamy-white flowers of American chestnuts in full bloom" The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) wants to re- reate that view, and is working hard to involve the public in the restoration project. The range of these magnificent trees was from Maine to Georgia, and from the Piedmont west to the Ohio valley. In the middle of this area, one out of every four hardwood trees was an American chestnut. Increasing evidence indicates that "the American chestnut tree may have been the fastest growing hardwood in the northern hemisphere." They not only grew fast, they were big. A tree could be five feet in diameter and a hundred feet tall. Their nuts were delicious, nutritious and	abundant. Sometimes the nuts on the ground could be gathered with a shovel. Since the chestnuts were more resistant to frost than other nut trees, the mountain folk could rely on them as a food staple and a cash crop. They would stack their attics to the rafters with nuts for the family. More nuts were stored in the barn as food for the farm animals. (Chestnuts were an important source of food for the wild animals as well.) If they had a surplus, the farmers would sell chestnuts in the cities. The most enterprising of them would ship chestnuts to the big cities, especially during the holiday season. Chestnut wood was used to make fence posts, roof shingles, furniture, and even musical instruments. Even though the tree grew fast, its wood was of excellent quality. It grew tall and straight, which made easy work at the sawmill. .Loggers tell of loading entire railroad cars with boards cut from just one tree.	Chestnut was lighter in weight and more easily worked than oak and as rot resistant as redwood..1 But then an American Tragedy occurred. This amazing native American species was felled by an Asian invader. The blight fungus was first discovered in New York City in 1904, and by 1950 all that was left of billions of trees covering nine million acres of land were .huge, ghostly. carcasses. The stumps and fallen logs still send up sprouts, but they are quickly taken over by the blight and die. Above 2000 feet elevation one can still see a chestnut sprout rising from the corpse of its parent. The dead stump or log is grey, and the bright green leaves of the sprout are narrow, serrated and pointed. The leaves are thin and smooth to the touch. While hiking in our Big Canoe mountains, if you should find a sprout 10-20 feet in height, you should not touch it for fear of spreading the blight, which might be on your fingers.