Chinese Cousin Helps American Chestnut Tree Return

The American chestnut tree, nearly wiped out by a blight that started more than 100 years ago, is beginning to make a comeback thanks to its Chinese cousin.

US Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne planted a blight-resistant chestnut tree outside the department's headquarters in Washington on Thursday, pledging to help restore the tree to the American landscape it once covered.

Until the beginning of the 2Oth century, American chestnut trees dominated forests in the Eastern United States, making up one in four trees found from Maine to Florida and west into the Ohio valley.

But the majestic giants -- up to 100 feet (30.5 metres) tall and 5 feet (1.5 metre) in diameter -- were nearly exterminated by an Asian fungus imported on plants.

The fungus was discovered in New York City in 1904 and quickly spread, killing some 3.5 billion of the trees by 1950.

Government-paid workers in the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Depression in the 1930s built cabins and lodges with the dead trees at public campgrounds, many of which still stand today.

Because it grows straight and is free of branches in its lower half, the chestnut was favored for timber and was used for telegraph poles, railroad ties, paneling, fine furniture and musical instruments.