Character and Distribution of American Chestnut Sprouts in Southern New England Woodlands

PAILLET, F. L. (U.S. Geol. Survey, MS 403, Box 25046, Federal Center, Denver, CO 802250046). Character and distribution of American chestnut sprouts in southern New England woodlands. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 115: 32-44. 1988.-American chestnut sprout populations were mapped on 14 sites of approximately 1 square kilometer in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Living sprouts were nearly continuous in distribution at 2 of the 14 sites, almost completely absent from 2 other sites, and sparsely distributed, with local concentrations of high density, on the remaining 10 sites. The highest densities of sprouts were found adjacent to old growth woodland that once contained chestnut seed sources. However, very few or no chestnut sprouts were found in the interior of old growth stands containing many chestnut snags and stumps. Differences in soil conditions and other natural factors do not fully account for the lack of chestnut reproduction on many of these sites. The absence of sprouts on suitable sites adjacent to former chestnut seed sources is attributed to the effects of former land use activities on chestnut seedling establishment in the years before chestnut blight, along with competitive exclusion of chestnut by more tolerant species on mesic sites. The present distribution of chestnut sprouts indicates that former forest edges, hedgerows, young stands of pioneer tree species in old fields, and shrub thickets on the margin of moist areas may have been especially suitable for chestnut seedling establishment. Some of these conjectures about the nature of chestnut seedling establishment are consistent with observations recorded by H. D. Thoreau in the mid19th century.