Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

thexylom OP t1_izdfwfo wrote

Reply to comment by mem_somerville in A recent study and a project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that chestnut agroforestry systems improved soil health and increased soil carbon sequestration in both the short term and the long term by thexylom

Can you elaborate a little bit about why you prefer the American chestnut over the Chinese chestnut?

3

marcusregulus t1_izeixui wrote

The American chestnut is the native species, and as such, has adapted characteristics enabling it to be a competitive forest tree (tall and straight, climate adaptations etc.) that the Chinese tree somewhat lacks. The blight resistant American chestnut tree under development by TACF and SUNY is a transgenic organism. Meaning that a gene from wheat has been inserted (oxalate oxidase.)

We eat this gene in massive quantities every day, but you know how some people are about transgenic technology.

3

mem_somerville t1_izg0q1z wrote

As u/marcusregulus says, it's non-native. I don't know why people want this when every other times people talk about introducing species they say 'cane toad' and 'purple loosestrife' and those god-forsaken water chestnuts that I pulled out of the Mystic River for years.

Why don't they see that here? I ask the same thing every time someone wants Wolbachia instead of GMO mosquitoes and end up just rolling my eyes back in my head. People who claim to be environmentalists somehow can't figure this out.

Anyway: the American chestnut is what should be used.

1