Ever seen pictures of humongous, old-growth forests in Germany or Japan. Ancient trees stretching skyward over 100 ft tall? Titanic trunks? Believe it or not, almost all of the Eastern American forest looked this way until the beginning of the 20th century. This is because the American Chestnut was the dominant tree in the Eastern U.S. An estimated 3.5 - 4 billion American Chestnuts grew from Maine to Georgia and from the Mississippi River to the Appalachain mountains. Not only dominant in numbers, the American Chestnut towered over pine, maple, and even oak trees that surrounded it. The American Chestnut grew to over 100 ft tall and over 7 ft wide at the base. The largest recorded specimen was a tree in Waynesvill, NC that measured 17 ft across at the base. To find out more information, check out the links below.

What has motivated me to post about these trees is that there are a number of groups who seek to revive this tree and reforest the eastern U.S. with a blight-resistant American Chestnut. The implications are not merely ecological.

The American Chestnut was the center of a number of American industries before the blight began its devastating march away from the Bronx Zoo in New York in 1904. It provided food in the form of nuts. The wood was strong, straight-grained, and amazingly decay-resistant (split-rail fences built with American Chestnut still stand after 60 years of weathering). The bark and wood provided tannins used in a very vigorous leather industry in the 1800's (especially in NC).

Beyond the economic arguments for reviving the tree,

The Time Blog is the result of intense, but casual musings between myself and my father. We have always been fascinated by the theories and possibilities of time travel. We are not physicists or mathematicians. We are not self-taught geniuses. But have been blessed with intellectual curiosity and the courage to think on our own.

This blog is an attempt to create a forum for truly open discussion on theories of the nature of time and the possibility or impossibility of time travel. We have, over time, arrived at certain ideas that seem to us to be original and, at least, interesting.

We are starting this forum under the assumption that creative thinkers always have more to gain from both communicating their ideas and listening to other, possibly dissenting, views and theories. We also hope that in posting to this blog, users can and will submit any illsutrations or graphical representations of their ideas. Like all forms of communication, the evolution of this blog will depend solely on how it is used.

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