At Home With Ellen Cole

Capital Gazette Communications

The American Chestnut tree was renowned for its height, beauty and impressive canopy of green. The usefulness of its wood was unparalleled; tannic acid in the bark and wood was used to tan leather. And, who can forget the opening line from Nat King Cole's version of "The Christmas Song," written by Mel Torme? "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose …"

The mighty American Chestnut, once found throughout the East Coast, Midwest and southern U.S., was felled by a microscopic fungal spore, first spotted in The Bronx in 1904 and identified as Endothia parasitica . The fungus entered America by stowing away aboard imported Asian trees. Once it gets into a chestnut tree, the disease encircles the trunk with cankers and, essentially, strangles the tree within a few years. By the 1940s, American Chestnut forests were almost completely wiped out - and the spores are still active.

Hopefully, a few decades in the future, we might see hillsides covered with chestnut trees again. Throughout the region, in a painstakingly slow process, scientists and volunteers are cross-breeding the American Chestnut with its Chinese cousin.

One farm in Birdsville is currently cultivating a grove of fifth-generation hybrid chestnut saplings that are 15/16 American.

Of the 200 planted, only a handful are expected to survive. Many of the other young trees are showing the rust-colored, death grip of Endothia parasitica . Pollen from the few fungus-resistant survivors will be cross-bred with specimens from other research farms and - let's cross our fingers tightly - it is believed the sixth generation might be the breed that succeeds.

That's not what visitors are probably thinking as they drive up the long, curvy gravel road to the house at Turnings, the farmstead of Joe Dickey and his wife, Martha Blaxall. They're admiring the spectacular view.

Joe is a well-regarded wood turning artist and bluegrass musician with two bands: Crabgrass, which regularly performs at 49 West, and The Other Band, usually booked for Watermark Cruises. Joe was a research professor who retired from both Johns Hopkins and the Navy labs. Martha is an economic and management consultant. "Turnings" is also the name of Joe's fine art and furniture company. A past president of the Maryland Federation of Art, he is a founding member of the Chesapeake Wood Turners. Joe has a wood turning studio at Maryland Hall. Years ago, it was his high school - he is a 1957 graduate of the old Annapolis High.