The People's Climate March Makes History

The People's Climate March on September 21, 2014, was one of the best days for the environmental movement in history. Thousands turned out to march all over the world, including over 400,000 marchers in New York City.

Listen to the roar of the crowd after the moment of silence! We are the future, hear us roar! :)

Jane Goodall, Al Gore and Bill de Blasio marched together during the “People’s Climate March.” Getty Images pic.twitter.com/zgwHDMNEF5

— Rebecca Leahy (@rlbrasket) September 22, 2014

#PeopleClimateMarch http://t.co/rFOD9nIV9Z display their beautiful hand-painted banner at #ClimateMarch pic.twitter.com/IARKJS0ryk

— john zangas (@johnzangas) September 21, 2014

#Indigenous resistance #FloodWallStreet pic.twitter.com/tVhnTSsY35 via @democracynow #firstnations #climatemarch #ClimateJustice #Climate2014

— #Munduruku (@PersonalEscrito) September 22, 2014

Amazing Idea - Solar Roads

I love the idea of useless heat-producing asphalt replaced by miles of solar panels that can light up the world. I hope I live long enough to see it! In northern climes, the solar panels could melt the snow and ice on the roads, making them safe for travel all year round. And with wires running under the roads, there would be no need for powerlines. Not to mention all the jobs this idea would create. Really the possibilities are endless!

No KXL Pipeline ~ Native Americans and First Nations March on Washington

Some amazing Native Americans and First Nations from Canada marching on the Washington DC Mall against the Keystone XL Pipeline. My heart is with them, and I hope President Obama is watching (he's traveling in Korea today). According to Rolling Stone, the President has decided to reject the pipeline and is merely waiting for a good time to announce it. I hope and pray that is true. If it is, I'm actually glad he didn't undercut this great show of solidarity by the Cowboy and Indian Alliance and every Native and Conservation Group. There will be other fights and this just brings everyone closer together. There are battles to come because Big Oil never sleeps.

#rejectandprotect https://t.co/WV17zE92fi
— Andrew Nazdin (@andrewnazdin) April 26, 2014

Rolling Stone

. . . the president is likely to announce his decision on the northern leg of the Keystone XL, the hugely controversial 1,179-mile-long pipeline that would bring tar-sands oil down from Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries. Although no final decision has been made, two high-level sources in the Obama administration told me recently that the president has all but decided to deny the permit for the pipeline – a dramatic move that would light up Democratic voters and donors while further provoking the wrath of Big Oil. Finally, Obama is positioning the U.S. to play a key role in negotiations on a new global-climate treaty that will begin next year, establishing American leadership on climate issues and giving him one last chance to lead the world to a cooler future before he leaves the Oval Office.

EDITOR'S NOTE: On Friday April 18th, after the print version of this story had closed, the State Department announced that the decision on the Keystone XL Pipeline would be delayed due to legal challenges to the pipeline's route, effectively putting off resolution of this controversial issue until after the election. The text has been updated to reflect these latest developments.

A beautiful song is leading our march #nokxl #rejectandprotect https://t.co/gw9bsYRAh3
— Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) April 26, 2014

"Hey, Obama, we don't want that pipeline drama!" #RejectAndProtect #NoKXL pic.twitter.com/Vu5kkxuoUR
— Friends of the Earth (@foe_us) April 26, 2014

Heroes ~ Native Americans and First Nations in Canada fighting against #KeystoneXL Pipeline #edshow pic.twitter.com/921d5e3C48
— Jeanne K. (@SnarkAmendment) April 23, 2014

#RejectAndProtect is writing new history this week to say #noKXL -- read all about it: http://t.co/OF5Esr916d pic.twitter.com/F2f73cVAC8
— Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) April 25, 2014

There's alot of people here #nokxl #rejectandprotect #xldissent pic.twitter.com/UsXD3aobMS
— David Goodner (@davidgoodner) April 26, 2014

"Make the decision for future generations" #NoXL #KeystoneXL #StopXL #FirstNations #RejectAndProtect pic.twitter.com/sBtgo7UlzY
— Jeanne K. (@SnarkAmendment) April 26, 2014

Stop #KeystoneXL : Reject & Protect: Opening Ceremony (Video) http://t.co/afWjAT3uA5 #tcot #p2 #RejectAndProtect pic.twitter.com/fANnJYGjkR
— Blue DuPage (@BlueDuPage) April 26, 2014

Neil Young, pipeline fighter, is here at #RejectAndProtect. #NoKXL pic.twitter.com/p91XVRDXM4
— 350 dot org (@350) April 26, 2014

Neil Young urging Obama to make world history by saying #NoKXL. #RejectAndProtect pic.twitter.com/8yPdIujaYi
— Adam Greenberg (@Pragmactivist99) April 26, 2014

Neil Young and a woman protest the southern-leg of KXL in Texas #RejectAndProtect pic.twitter.com/ZdfO8tuqmY
— Jamie Henn (@Agent350) April 26, 2014

The March Against Monsanto Corporation

This weekend, thousands (possibly millions) of people took to the streets around the world to fight against agri-business giant Monsanto who routinely experiments on human beings - all of us - with their "genetically modified organisms" or "GMO" plants.

So yes, regular garden variety Human Organisms protested against the toxic corp.

Find out More at Occupy Monsanto Facebook



From USA Today

Organizers said "March Against Monsanto" protests were held in 52 countries and 436 cities, including Los Angeles where demonstrators waved signs that read "Real Food 4 Real People" and "Label GMOs, It's Our Right to Know."

Genetically modified plants are grown from seeds that are engineered to resist insecticides and herbicides, add nutritional benefits or otherwise improve crop yields and increase the global food supply.

Most corn, soybean and cotton crops grown in the United States today have been genetically modified. But critics say genetically modified organisms can lead to serious health conditions and harm the environment. The use of GMOs has been a growing issue of contention in recent years, with health advocates pushing for mandatory labeling of genetically modified products even though the federal government and many scientists say the technology is safe.

From Truth-Out

Eight national governments in the European Union have banned Monsanto's MON810 maize and other forms of GMO cultivation in their countries: Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg and Poland. In Poland, Amflora potatoes and MON810 were banned in January of this year, with the Ministry of Agriculture citing danger to bees in justifying its decision. Violation of the bans are sanctioned with fines of 200 percent of the value of GM seeds, with government ordinance to destroy any GMO fields.

Happy Earth Day!

Save the Earth ~ It's the Only Planet with Chocolate! <3

Celebrating the Birthday of Naturalist John Muir

John Muir is often called a "Scottish-American" because he was born in Scotland. But he was really an all-American hero, striding across the landscape in search of natural treasures and using his skill as a writer to help preserve the wilderness. He was key to founding our National Park System, especially the great western parks of Yellowstone and Yosemite. He founded the Sierra Club which carries on his great work to this day.

Happy Birthday, John Muir!!! How fitting that his birth is one day before Earth Day.

"The Battle for Conservation will go on endlessly. It is part of the universal warfare between right and wrong."
~ John Muir







From PBS

John Muir was one of the earliest advocates of the national park idea, and its most eloquent spokesman. Born in Dunbar, Scotland, he moved with his family to a Wisconsin farm in 1849. Muir's father, an itinerant Presbyterian minister, treated him harshly and insisted that he memorize the Bible. By age 11, he was able to recite three-quarters of the Old Testament by heart, and all of the New Testament.

Muir studied botany and geology at the University of Wisconsin and had a natural flair for inventions. In 1867, after recovering from a factory accident that left him temporarily blinded for several months, he cut short a promising career in industry to walk from Indiana to Florida, creating botanical sketches on his way. From there he sailed to California and then walked from San Francisco to the Sierra Nevada – the "Range of Light" that would transform his life with his "unconditional surrender" to nature.

After working as a sheepherder in the high country for a season, Muir took a job in the Yosemite Valley in 1869, building a sawmill for James Mason Hutchings. In his free time, he roamed Yosemite, where he developed a scientific theory that the valley had been carved by glaciers. Muir felt a spiritual connection to nature; he believed that mankind is just one part of an interconnected natural world, not its master, and that God is revealed through nature.

. . . he traveled to Alaska's Glacier Bay and Washington's Mount Rainier. His writings brought national attention to two more places that would eventually become national parks.
Muir would also champion protection of the Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon in Arizona. He was the public voice for setting aside the high country around Yosemite Valley as a national park in 1890, as well as for General Grant and Sequoia national parks.

. . . Muir was a founder and the first president of the Sierra Club; Muir Woods National Monument, a grove of redwoods north of San Francisco, is named in his honor.

Thousands March to Protest Tar Sands Pipeline and Fracking

For the first time in 120 years the The Sierra Club is urging citizens of the U.S. and Canada to practice Civil Disobedience against the XL Pipeline, planned to carry toxic tar sands from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. This weekend, many protests took place across the country, and celebrities chained themselves to the gates of the White House leading to the arrest of Michael Brune, head of the Sierra Club, Julian Bond, Darryl Hannah, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr..


Protests Across the Country

Thousands of people rallied in downtown San Francisco on Sunday to urge President Obama to reject construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, an action they said would prove he is committed to fighting global warming.
The demonstration across from the Ferry Building was held at the same time as similar events in cities including Chicago, Seattle and Los Angeles. The main event in Washington, D.C., drew tens of thousands of supporters in what was billed as the largest climate change rally in U.S. history.

Activists Arrested in White House Protest Over XL Pipeline

Celebrities and environmental activists, including lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and civil rights leader Julian Bond, were arrested Wednesday after tying themselves to the White House gate to protest the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.
Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune also was arrested – the first time in the group's 120-year history that a club leader was arrested in an act of civil disobedience. The club's board of directors approved the action as a sign of its opposition to the $7 billion pipeline, which would carry oil derived from tar sands in western Canada to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast.



Activist Bill McKibben, actress Daryl Hannah and NASA climate scientist James Hansen also were arrested, along with more than 40 others. They were charged with failure to disperse and obey lawful orders, and released on $100 bond each.

. . . Kennedy, president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a New York-based environmental group, said he was being arrested "with regret," noting that he would prefer to contest the pipeline in court – and may eventually do so.
Kennedy, whose father was an attorney general and U.S. senator, called the pipeline "a boondoggle of monumental proportions" that will "ruin the lives of millions of people," through increased carbon pollution and likely spills.

Powerful Message About Mountain Coal Removal from Kids of Appalachia

Powerful video of Appalachian children explaining the dangers of mountaintop coal removal to President Obama. Seriously - this is a must-see. It brought tears to my eyes. I was once a child just like them and felt just as strongly about pollution and mining. My wish would be that no more generations would ever have to watch mountains being destroyed for coal.

You can help:

Give a Donation Today to ILoveMountains.Org

Sign The Petition to tell President Obama "No More Excuses" ~ Stop Mountaintop Removal in the Appalachian Mountains

Death of a Yellowstone Wolf

A wolf with a radio collar wandered out of Yellowstone National Park and sadly was immediately shot by a hunter. It wasn't just any wolf, but the Alpha Female of a famous wolf pack which had been studied by scientists for many years. This is just devastating for the ecosystem.

Who was the hunter? No one knows, but clearly he was just aching to kill a wolf. More's the pity. It amazes me that the same people who would sue for a million dollars if someone shot their domesticated horse or dog don't give a crap about an irreplaceable wolf who is a treasure to our country and really belongs to us all.

So many wolves have been murdered this year - yes, wantonly murdered - that Montana just this morning cancelled their wolf season in certain areas, from the Laramie News:

Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission chairman Bob Ream said commissioners were addressing only "the particular and unique situation" of collared wolves being shot.

"It seems to be kind of a compromise," Ream said. "Is it political? Yeah, wolves are political."

. . . Park officials say at least seven Yellowstone wolves _ including five wearing tracking collars _ were shot in recent weeks by hunters in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

Also shot were four collared wolves originally from the park but now living outside it. Three more shot in the vicinity of the park had unknown origins and were not wearing collars, park officials said.

Saturday marks the opening day of Montana's first wolf trapping season since the animals lost federal protections last year.

From the New York Times:

The wolf, known as 832F to researchers, was the alpha female of the park’s highly visible Lamar Canyon pack and had become so well known that some wildlife watchers referred to her as a “rock star.” The animal had been a tourist favorite for most of the past six years.

The wolf was fitted with a $4,000 collar with GPS tracking technology, which is being returned, said Daniel Stahler, a project director for Yellowstone’s wolf program. Based on data from the wolf’s collar, researchers knew that her pack rarely ventured outside the park, and then only for brief periods, Dr. Stahler said.

This year’s hunting season in the northern Rockies has been especially controversial because of the high numbers of popular wolves and wolves fitted with research collars that have been killed just outside Yellowstone in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

. . . “She is the most famous wolf in the world,” said Jimmy Jones, a wildlife photographer who lives in Los Angeles and whose portrait of 832F appears in the current issue of the magazine American Scientist.

Documenting the End of Arctic Ice on our Planet

It's imperative to pay attention to the disappearance of ancient ice all over the world. It's not an academic question of "when" this will happen anymore. Global Warming is real. It is happening right now and the effects on our planet will be devastating as temperatures and oceans rise.

I saw parts of the movie "Chasing Ice" on PBS a few months ago, and it is amazing. What they are documenting is historic, awe-inspiring and undeniable. And real.

Earth Vision Trust on Facebook
James Balog on Twitter

We are so thrilled to announce that Chasing Ice will be showing at the United Nations later this month.... fb.me/NT8XELeq

— James Balog,EVT (@earthvisiontrst) December 2, 2012

"A lot of people have told me it's time to stop but I find myself with a profound committment to continuing to tell this story. I feel like I'm in the middle of the biggest story I could possibly ever be in the middle of as an environmental photographer. This is a monumental historic change in the natural landscape, happening in our time."
~ James Balog, "Chasing Ice" Photographer, on PBS News







From the Extreme Ice Survey Website

In 2005, internationally acclaimed nature photojournalist James Balog traveled to Iceland to photograph glaciers for The New Yorker. This led to a 2006 National Geographic assignment to document changing glaciers in various parts of the world. In the course of shooting that story (which became the June 2007 cover story, “The Big Thaw”), Balog, who in addition to being a photographer is a mountaineer with a graduate degree in geomorphology, recognized that extraordinary amounts of ice were vanishing with shocking speed. Features that took centuries to develop were being destroyed in just a few years or even just a few weeks. These changes are the most visually dramatic and immediate manifestations of climate change on our planet today.

Founded in 2007 by James Balog, the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) is an innovative, long-term photography project that merges art and science to give a “visual voice” to the planet’s changing ecosystems. One aspect of EIS is an extensive portfolio of single-frame photos celebrating the beauty–the art and architecture–of ice. The other aspect of EIS is time-lapse photography; currently, 34 cameras are deployed at 16 glaciers in Greenland, Iceland, the Nepalese Himalaya, Alaska and the Rocky Mountains of the U.S. These cameras record changes in the glaciers every half hour, year-round during daylight, yielding approximately 8,000 frames per camera per year. We edit the time-lapse images into stunning videos that reveal how fast climate change is transforming large regions of the planet. Finally, EIS supplements the time-lapse record with episodic repeat photography in the French and Swiss Alps, Canada, Iceland, and Bolivia.

Hurricane Sandy ~ Predictions Were Right and Science Saved Lives

Hindsight is always 20-20 especially when dealing with predicting the weather. But with Sandy, the forecasters got it all too right, even though many on Twitter and elsewhere made fun of the moniker "Frankenstorm," and CNN News supposedly banned the use of the name. Yet the hurricane really developed into the worst of the worst-case-scenarios and everyone's nightmare storm.

Luckily local officials listened to the scientists at NOAA and science saved lives.

Dust Storm Blows Eastward from Oklahoma

I thought I had seen every kind of weather where I live in Tennessee, from drought to blizzards to tornadoes to remnants of hurricanes. Did I mention hailstorms, straight-line-wind and downbursts? Yes, I thought I had experienced everything Mother Nature had to throw at us, even an occasional flood, earthquake, landslide, and sinkhole.

So imagine my surprise when my local forecast surprised me.

Today it says: Blowing Dust. And you can see it on the radar (screencap below) as sort of muddy-looking streaks blowing up from Alabama - surreal. Outdoors, it only appears as a haze over everything. Usually a windy day in October would be nice and clear with blue skies and long-distance visibility. Not today.

My mother grew up in Kansas and told us what it was like during the Dust Bowl of the 30s, when they had to wear rags over their faces to walk to school, and blocked cracks around the windows to try and keep the dirt out. This is nothing compared to that, of course. And when I was a kid, Chattanooga had such bad air pollution that it was hazy for months at a time, so we've come a long way.

But the fact that the drought in Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska is so horrible that eroded dirt is blowing across the country again is disturbing. It wasn't supposed to happen again, and the fact it coincides with the Great Recession is really something to think about in terms of history repeating itself.







From the Chattanoogan

Kathy Robertson of the Air Pollution Control Bureau said, "We started getting calls about 10 o'clock this morning. By 12 or 12:30 when people were getting out for lunch, our phones were ringing off the hooks."

She said at first it was thought to be a woods fire, "but we didn't smell smoke and the haze was a different color."

Ms. Robertson said she eventually found reports of the dust storm that hit the Midwest and knew that it had arrived here.

It started as a beautiful clear day, but around mid-morning it began to get difficult to see Lookout Mountain or Missionary Ridge from downtown.

Ms. Robertson said it was the same situation in places like Fort Payne, Dalton and Cleveland. "I got a call saying it was even worse in Knoxville."

However, she said local air quality readings remained good. She said the dust should not be a health factor except for those who are sensitive to dust.

"Elect Obama Now" Song Catchy and Old-Timey!

This is a cute, catchy and pleasantly old-fashioned election song for Obama! And a nice inspirational video to get you jazzed for the election. :)

Climate Crisis

Lots of news about extreme weather conditions that are eventually going to affect all of us.

Governor Quinn of Illinois: We are All Tom Joad

Who can forget the profound desperation in Tom Joad’s heart as he and his family leave Oklahoma’s drought-stricken farms in John Steinbeck’s classic "The Grapes of Wrath?"


That dusty image — of flattened fields and beaten-down farmers — can be seen today in most counties in my state and others due to the persistent, unprecedented drought now suffocating America’s breadbasket.
The facts are stark.
In Illinois, we’ve experienced the sixth-driest growing season on record. Of 102 counties, 100 are disaster areas. The latest corn conditions show 74 percent of this year’s crop is “poor” or “very poor”, so the cost of corn products ranging from ethanol to tortillas will soar. Barren grazing pastures are forcing livestock farmers to purchase hay at inflated prices. The drought also affects fisheries, wildlife, water levels in navigable waterways and the entire food chain.

Reuters: UN Warns Extreme Weather Affects Food Supply

"It has not been properly recognised yet that we are dealing with a food system here. There is a whole chain that is also going to be affected by climate change," Professor Dr John Porter of the University of Copenhagen said.

"It is more than just the fact that there are droughts in the United States that will reduce yields," he said. Like the other experts, he said was giving personal opinions, not those of the U.N. panel.

After harvest, floods could wash away roads or bridges, for instance, between fields and factories processing the crop. Or warehouses storing food could be damaged by more powerful storms. Such factors were likely to hit poor nations hardest.

"There are reasons to expect more frequent (price) spikes, given that it will be more common to see conditions that are considered extreme," said David Lobell, an assistant professor at Stanford University in California.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Western Wildfires Threaten Homes

Not only are more wildfires flaring up in the West this year than last, but the nation's fires have gotten bigger, said Jennifer Smith, of the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. As of Thursday, more than 43,000 wildfires had been reported in the U.S. this season, burning a total of nearly 6.4 million acres, or 10,000 square miles, the center said. The 10-year average for the period is 52,535 fires, but covering only 5 million acres, Smith said.

    Guardian UK: Arctic Sea Ice Disappearing

Using instruments on earlier satellites, scientists could see that the area covered by summer sea ice in the Arctic has been dwindling rapidly. But the new measurements indicate that this ice has been thinning dramatically at the same time. For example, in regions north of Canada and Greenland, where ice thickness regularly stayed at around five to six metres in summer a decade ago, levels have dropped to one to three metres. "Preliminary analysis of our data indicates that the rate of loss of sea ice volume in summer in the Arctic may be far larger than we had previously suspected," said Dr Seymour Laxon, of the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at University College London (UCL), where CryoSat-2 data is being analysed.

"Very soon we may experience the iconic moment when, one day in the summer, we look at satellite images and see no sea ice coverage in the Arctic, just open water." The consequences of losing the Arctic's ice coverage, even for only part of the year, could be profound. Without the cap's white brilliance to reflect sunlight back into space, the region will heat up even more than at present. As a result, ocean temperatures will rise and methane deposits on the ocean floor could melt, evaporate and bubble into the atmosphere. Scientists have recently reported evidence that methane plumes are now appearing in many areas. Methane is a particularly powerful greenhouse gas and rising levels of it in the atmosphere are only likely to accelerate global warming.

Earthquakes and Fracking

Rachel Maddow did an excellent spot about the connections between natural gas "fracking"  - forcing wastewater from drilling into deep underground wells - and earthquakes in Texas where historically few have occurred.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Freaky Weather in Tennessee

We've been having a rather bad drought in the Chattanooga area, so everyone was happy when storms were forcast for Thursday. But it turned into a freaky weather situation that no one expected.

First we had severe storms with bad lightning and very little rain. Hail was reported but on my sidewalk it turned into giant raindrops that only lasted a few minutes.

An hour later, Chattanooga got squeezed between two more severe storms, and the outflow created a dry "Gust Front" wind that wreaked havoc over a wide area. I would have called it a "gustnado" because it was twisting trees first to the left then the right. This video captures it well - I'm glad no trees fell on this guy!




I have never seen waves like this on Lake Chickamauga, and for 8 years I lived right on the Tennessee River.




Unfortunately, a boat also overturned in the storm, killing a child and her grandmother.

In our neighborhood a power pole snapped in half and took down the lines. It was 24 hours later that we got our power restored, after my husband went directly to the power board building and reported it for the third time. Thank God because this afternoon the temperature inside our house at 5 p.m. was 90 degrees.

But I realize that what we have suffered for 24 hours is nothing compared to those up in Virginia and the Washington DC area this past week. I hope everyone gets the power back on soon.

Between the tornadoes over the past year, and this Gust Front, I can't even imagine what could be next. I don't want to know!

Oops - Someone Stole Our 800-Year-Old Tree

The Lorax would be infuriated! I know I am! How the heck did someone manage to "steal" a giant red cedar tree from a Canadian Provincial Park on Vancouver Island? It was easy, say both environmental groups as well as park rangers - someone just drove into a parking lot, chopped it down partially, let the rangers finish it, then came back and dragged the rest of it away. The B.C. government should look into these lame excuses, which just don't "cut it" for me. According to the video below, the old-growth forest in Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park has been protected since 1988. So someone is obviously looking the other way while loggers ravage these giant trees, and there's absolutely no excuse that can justify this .


Story from Huff Post

Torrance Coste of the Wilderness Committee said consistent budget cuts over the last decade mean park rangers rarely monitor remote sites such as the Carmanah-Walbran Provincial Park, from where the cedar was chopped.

"Whoever's doing this knows that no one's going to have eyes on this park for months at a time so it's exceptionally easy to do what they've done," Coste said Thursday.

Don Closson, who supervises the Cowichan area for B.C. Parks, said Parks officials at the site a year ago noticed that about 80 per cent of the tree had been cut through and that a professional faller was hired to bring it down because it posed a safety hazard.

"On our return this year we noticed that somebody had gone in and cut up a large portion of the butt and dragged portions of it into the parking lot," he said.

Blocks of red cedar are valuable as a roofing product, Closson said, adding officials have little information in the case. "We have no eyewitnesses or licence plates at this time."

Happy Place Diversion ~ Fiery Gizzard Trail

Inspiring look at Middle Tennessee's South Cumberland Plateau and Fiery Gizzard Trail. This is a true ecological success story.

Good News for American Chestnut Trees

The American Chestnut Tree once provided abundant food for humans and wildlife, as well as strong and long-lasting lumber. But then a blight nearly wiped out the species by the 1920s. Occasionally botanists would find a sprout in the forest old enough to bear fruit, which would inevitably succomb and die. Yet the resiliancy of the species gave hope to scientists that somehow this majestic tree would not go extinct.

And in 2006, a miracle happened. A stand of resistant trees was discovered in Albany, Georgia. Then in 2009, a 74 foot giant was found in Talledaga National Forest in Alabama. These are like the ivory-billed woodpeckers of the tree world, existing where they were supposedly wiped out long ago.

Scientists have been trying to cross the American Chestnut with the resistant Chinese Chestnut with limited success. But yesterday it was announced that genetic engineering may be the answer:

This month, researchers from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) in Syracuse, N.Y., are planning to plant 10 chestnut trees with a tweaked gene that they believe will help the trees stave off the pathogen that brought their ruin.
William Powell, a plant biotechnology expert at ESF, and his colleague Charles Maynard, have incorporated a gene into the test trees that they derived from a breed of wheat. The gene has been shown to increase resistance in hybrid poplar trees to fungal pathogens.
. . . The hybrid chestnut trees are slated to be planted at a test site in the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx on April 18. The location is significant. "That's a stone's throw — literally across the street — from where the blight was discovered in 1904," Maynard said in a statement.

Awesome news, and we hope these trees will be around for the next 100 years!

You can help the effort to save this amazing tree with a donation to the American Chestnut Foundation.