Ron Natalie wrote:

Of course, we don't have any American Chestnut to speak of anymore.

They're actually pretty close to having a survivable strain. Two approaches have
been used by different outfits. One guy has been cross-breeding with Asian
chestnuts and another outfit has been trying to build up immunity by working
with the most disease resistant wild trees he can find. IIRC, the latter group
is closest to release. The NPS is already talking about the need to relax the regs
against introducing plants to the National Parks when the time comes, especially
if it's the Asian cross-breed that's most successful.

George Patterson
Love, n.: A form of temporary insanity afflicting the young. It is curable
either by marriage or by removal of the afflicted from the circumstances
under which he incurred the condition. It is sometimes fatal, but more
often to the physician than to the patient.