The Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo and the New York Restoration Project plan to plant 25 hybrid American chestnut trees at the zoo on October 5, in partnership with The American Chestnut Foundation.
In 1904, Bronx Zoo Chief Forester Hermann Merkel first documented the chestnut blight there. The disease spread across the tree's native range and eventually wiped out nearly four billion American chestnuts, which once provided food and habitat for wildlife.
The American chestnut is now considered functionally extinct in the wild. The hybrids planned for the zoo are bred for blight resistance, and the planting is part of a longer restoration effort.
New York Restoration Project and its partners have planted and cared for more than 200 hybrid chestnuts in Manhattan's Highbridge Park since 2017. The zoo planting is planned for the following day, not yet completed.
