Chestnut trees thriving on the North Coast

Sep. 14—Not too long ago, Bob Ellsberg and his dog, Rosie, walked into a grove of trees growing between Pipeline Road and the Walluski River.

What they found were chestnut trees. Big chestnut trees. By the hundreds. Smaller trees by the thousands. The deeper their walks into the woods, the more they found.

Ellsberg, an author and part-time Astoria High School track coach, and former Clatsop Community College forestry instructor Jim Capellen have documented a treasure trove of chestnut trees — most likely American chestnuts — but whatever variety they are, it's unusual to find so many so far West.

A century ago, some four billion chestnut trees in the Eastern United States were killed by blight caused by a deadly fungus.

In Clatsop County, thousands of chestnut trees have "sprung up from the land," Ellsberg said, "largely due to global warming and thoughtful land management."

Ellsberg's research has shown that chestnut trees first planted in the 1860s, mostly in locations near the Youngs Bay and Skipanon River watersheds, grew slow and healthy.

"The environment kept them free of disease, but the competition from taller trees kept their numbers relatively low," he said. "Every 30 years or so, a heat wave or beneficial forest manipulation would allow for a few hundred new trees, but the last five to 10 years have brought productive seed conditions, warm and sunny, which led to an explosion of trees."

The area between Pipeline Road, the Walluski River and Youngs Bay, reaching west as far as Smith Lake, served as traditional water routes during the pioneer days of early settlement. It is likely one of the original settlers shared trees with homesteaders.

After planting, the trees were ready to spread pollen, produce seeds and allowed enough sunlight and heat to "make our area home to one of the largest 'wild' stands of chestnuts in the country," Ellsberg said. Planted mostly by squirrels and Steller's jay, he said one can find stands with dozens of large trees per acre and others with over a hundred trees.

Growth has been slow in the past because a wet, cold spring will not create the right conditions for full fertile nuts. Some orchardists, Ellsberg said, feel that they are only really fertile for a few days a year. If the nuts are poorly pollinated, "they aren't good for planting or eating," he said. "The sun that may burn our local evergreens produces record crops for local chestnut trees."

A few dozen of the original trees — ring-dated to over 150 years old — still stand, and others, due to the need to reach the sun in competitive woods, are some of the tallest found anywhere in the world, Ellsberg believes.

"From what I've read, in the U.S., the tallest chestnut tree is about 118 feet tall," he said. "We have some much taller."

Guided by Capellen and others, Ellsberg has been working to more fully understand what is happening.

"For the past year or so, I've been reading about chestnuts and talking to experts from around the country," he said. "Apparently, there are very few forests of this type, with several kinds of trees, evergreens and conifers, and a high percentage that are chestnuts of various ages."

Ellsberg was studying one of Clatsop County's earliest families when he learned of the chestnut trees.

An article by the Oregon City newspaper in the 1880s suggested that chestnuts would be a good tree to replant new clearcuts, "but our local pioneers were the only ones to be this successful," Ellsberg said.

While a few locals knew about the chestnuts, the trees really weren't much of a producer until global warming heated up the landscape, Ellsberg said.

"Most of the people I've talked to who have trees, didn't even know the nuts were edible," he said.

Their prickly pods, which usually contained about five or six nuts, now are producing much bigger crops of the tasty nuggets.

While it is difficult to determine the variety of chestnut, Ellsberg said, "our local trees are certainly blessed with some American chestnut, and most likely a hybrid with the European crop. Orchards would have been tall and the nuts would have been bigger than either species. The trees grow fast, as much as 5 feet a year, and, given enough sunlight, will produce a good many nuts per mature tree."

Unlike the horse chestnuts — a number of which are found in the Alderbrook area, Ellsberg said — which only produces a single inedible nut, the American and European trees produce several nuts per burr.

Ellsberg urges people who think they have found some chestnut trees to let him know and he will come by and take a look. The easiest time to spot them is in the fall when their long, canoe-shaped, serrated leaves are bright yellow.

"While these trees were everything to the generations of mountain folks in the East," he said, "they are a fun addition to our fantastic Oregon woodland."