Gene modification proposed to bring back near extinct American chestnut

I grew up in Detroit where the city Chestnut trees were everywhere. I remember as a young boy when they all got this disease and quickly died. Our entire family was sad one summer when the big Chestnut tree in our front yard was cut down. Has anyone under sixty ever tasted roasted chestnuts?

Northern Michigan was full of Chestnut trees and supported a large lumber industry. Now they were replaced by a spindly scrub pine that has little value. For that reason there are few jobs with those counties being lightly populated. I think if they could plant these news trees that in fifty or so years the state's lumber industry could return. But I do not know if the state's politicians would be bold enough to make that long an investment.

No Freep subscription: https://archive.is/QtaIV#selection-311.0-311.71