Shelton home to rare tree

SHELTON — American chestnut trees, which once dotting the landscape, have been a rare find for decades — which is why the city has become an arborist’s dream.

It was recently discovered that Shelton is home to an American chestnut tree, which sits beside the Rec Path, close to Wesley Drive. Now a sign educating passersby of the history of the American chestnut sits beside the majestic tree.

American chestnuts were once the predominant tree of Eastern United States forests, and important for their economic impact, Shelton Trails Committee member Val Gosset said.

“Large, tall and fast-growing, they were prime sources of rot-resistant lumber,” Gosset said. “Their nuts provided food for people, livestock and wildlife. All that changed in the early 1900s when American chestnuts were all but wiped out by blight.”

The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) has devoted itself to not only saving the American chestnut tree from extinction but restoring it to Eastern woodlands, Gosset said, and this year, that mission led them to the Shelton Rec Path.

Gosset said fellow Shelton Trail Committee member Mark Vollaro is active in The American Chestnut Foundation, so he collected some leaves and sent them to TACF for confirmation of the fact that the tree was a pure American chestnut.

Once confirmation was received, Gosset said the next step was pollination.

“Since chestnuts don’t self-pollinate and there were no other flowering American chestnut trees in the vicinity, the flowers of the Shelton tree needed to be handpollinated to produce viable seeds,” Gosset added.

The American Chestnut