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Dorothy Copus Brush You can help resurrect
'Tis the season for "leaf-peepers"
to follow the color trail filled with breath-taking scenes. Vermont
Life magazine explained in a recent edition how Vermont became
one of the hot spots for tourists wishing to see fall colors.
For years visitors came for cool summers and skiing in the winter,
but there was little interest in the "shoulder seasons"
of spring and fall. When World War II ended many changes affected
young, middle-class families. They had dependable cars, improved
highways and money for vacations. That time in the late 1940s
is when Vermont became one of the best places to enjoy fall foliage. The Smokies, a treasure shared by Tennessee
and North Carolina, draws thousands of visitors every fall with
its promise of color. The park was in its infancy in 1929 when
Horace M. Albright was named the second director of the newly
created National Park Service. He made his first visit to the
Smokies in the spring of 1930 and was astounded by the beauty
he saw. He returned that autumn to a totally different scene,
just as beautiful but at every turn the rich colors were spectacular. In Carlos C. Campbell's book Birth of a National
Park the scene is described in these words: "There were
the yellows and golds of hickories, sugar maples, yellow birches,
tulip poplars. Intermingled were the various shades of reds -
from intensely brilliant hues through the scarlets and maroons
of the dogwoods, sourwoods, sumacs, red maples, black gums, sweet
gums and oaks, especially the scarlet oaks. Often these were
set against green backgrounds of pines, hemlocks and spruce.
Mother Nature, had playfully emptied her paint pots with reckless
abandon across the mountainsides and wooded hills." Of course Mr. Albright had the advantage of
being alone as he viewed all this beauty. Today the park roads
are clogged with "leaf-peepers" from near and far,
just as in Vermont. Those of us on the Cumberland Plateau are
blessed to be surrounded by color in our own backyards and along
the roads we travel daily. When Albright visited, he saw forests prolific
with the giant American chestnut, a tree missing today. It has
been estimated that one in four hardwood trees in East Tennessee
may have been the chestnut. They grew to a tremendous size in
the Smoky Mountains, and many considered the tree to be the redwood
tree of the East. There are records of trees up to 10 feet across
and over 100 feet tall. Both humans and wildlife benefited from
the delicious abundant nuts. It was important as a timber tree
because of its rot-resistance and strength. Disaster struck in the early 1900s. A sneaky
fungus was accidentally imported and was responsible for one
of the worst ecological disasters in U.S. history. This chestnut
blight wiped out tens of millions of acres of American chestnut
trees from Maine to Georgia in the short span of 50 years. In 1983 a group of prominent scientists formed
The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) in the belief that this
magnificent tree could return because of developments in genetics
and plant pathology. After 15 years of hard work they are solving
the problem of chestnut blight and they hope to begin large-scale
reforestation with blight-resistant American chestnut trees before
the end of the decade. There are 5,000 members supporting this effort nationwide. This fall many Tennessee people received a letter urging them to help return the king of the trees to its native forest. Checks payable to The American Chestnut Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, should be sent to TACF, 469 Main St., P.O. Box 4044, Bennington, VT 05201-4044. What a fitting gift to future generations. |