Deer Love Chestnuts

The American chestnut was once the most important food and timber tree species in the Eastern hardwood forest. In 1904, a bark fungus accidentally introduced from Asia nearly completely destroyed this crucial nutrition source. Forty years later, the blight had killed over 30 million acres of chestnut trees from Maine to Georgia and west to the Mississippi. This was easily the worst ecological disaster in American history.

Photo courtesy of Chestnut Hill Outdoors.

The American chestnut was the primary food source tree for wildlife such as deer, bear, turkey, squirrel and hogs. The chestnut forest could produce 2,000 pounds of mast or more per acre and more carbohydrates than an acre of corn! This food source is made up of 40% carbohydrates and 10% high-quality protein which provides critical energy during the rut and while preparing for winter. Chestnuts were the preferred food in the fall for game because the sweet-tasting nuts were high in protein, carbohydrates and didn’t have the bitter tasting tannins like acorns. Deer have thousands more taste buds than humans and are sensitive to bitter-tasting tannins.

In the early 1950s, James Carpenter sent budwood to Dr. Robert T. Dunstan after discovering a single living American chestnut in a grove of dead trees in Salem, Ohio. Dunstan, a well-known plant breeder then living in North Carolina, grafted the budwood onto chestnut rootstock, breeding future varieties that would eventually be called the Dunstan Chestnut.

Photo courtesy of Chestnut Hill Outdoors.

Dr. Dunstan brought his chestnut hybrids to Alachua, Florida in 1962. Nineteen years later, his grandson Bob started Chestnut Hill Nursery (now Chestnut Hill Outdoors) in partnership with Debbi Gaw. Being no strangers to challenge, Bob and Debbi established the tree farm with the desire to reforest North America with chestnut trees. The blight-resistant Dunstan Chestnuts made the re-establishment of the chestnut forests possible, revitalizing the available nutrition for wildlife and the environment. According to the Chestnut Hill Outdoors website, these chestnuts produce heavy yearly crops of very large and sweet-tasting nuts. The nuts average 15-35 nuts per pound, as compared to Chinese nuts (35-100 per pound) and American nuts (75-150 per pound). They are much better tasting than imported European nuts and are never bland or bitter. The nuts peel easily, unlike imports that have clinging and ingrown pellicles (seed coats). The nuts ripen in September-November. Dunstan Chestnuts can produce nuts in only 3-5 years of age depending on care and climate. Trees planted in colder regions such as USDA zone 5, may bear between 5-7 years of age.

Building on the foundations of Dr. Dunstan’s work, Chestnut Hill Outdoors continues to share its knowledge and passion for living things by serving as a nationally-recognized leader in the introduction of new plant varieties that thrive in a range of habitats.

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