Wow! I knew that there were efforts ongoing, but this is the first solid timeline I’ve heard - we are just 10 years from staring to reforest the Appalachian mountains with blight-resistant ~American chestnuts, beginning to undo one of the greatest environmental disasters of the last century. If I understand correctly, these hybrids have been selectively bred for generations with the remaining wild American chestnut trees (they will sprout and even flower, but they die young from the blight) until the only observable Chinese chestnut trait left is the blight resistance. The growth habit, leaves, and seed size look exactly like the Native American tree and the hope is that they’ll adopt the same ecological niche as the old American chestnuts (which the Chinese chestnut trees will not).
