< Select A Different Album Gleanings from the Spring 2005 Planting March 25, 2005 The planting of chestnuts that will grow into trees to be tested and selected as candidates for further research work is an intensive process. Only a small percentage of the trees grown from a season's crop of hybrid chestnuts will progress to the next stage of cross breeding. At any planting, there are lessons to learn not only about the proper way to plant and care for the trees but also about the interest people place in the eventual return of the American chestnut to the eastern forests. Pieces of projectile points found at the chestnut planting site at the Pryor Farm remind one that Native Americans first occupied the Pisgah Mountain Range. One realizes that the American chestnut was an important tree to Native Americans and that it is important to restore it for the benefit of all people. Some volunteers working at the Pryor Farm on March 26, 2005 claim Cherokee ancestry. Feelings of "Oneness with the Earth" take on great meaning when one is doing work to help restore the American chestnut. A young boy learns from his father and a veteran forester the importance of planting nuts that carry a promise for the future restoration of the American chestnut tree. As the boy carefully places the chestnut in the ground, all trust that he will carry forward the lesson he has learned this day and be one of many of the next generation that care for the environment and work toward the restoration of the American chestnut tree. < Select A Different Album < Home