Extinct chestnut tree planted at Grey Towers 50th Anniversary

MILFORD — The ceremonial planting of the recently extinct chestnut tree at Grey Towers 50-year Anniversary and rededication ceremony echoed the replanting of trees Gifford and Cordelia Pinchot undertook on the same site.

“There used to be a beautiful chestnut tree right on the side of that driveway and that’s where we’re going to plant this one," said Lori McKean, Grey Towers spokesperson. "Blight wiped out all the chestnut trees in America, and Leila Pinchot among several others has been working hard to bring them back... This is the sixth generation cross breed that should be resistant to the blight. So if it succeeds, we’ll have chestnuts back in America.”

In the beginning of 20th century when Pinchot replanted the now thriving mountainside trees, it was all but bare from deforestation due to a huge demand for wood. Pinchot not only foresaw the need to replant, but he also took the whole issue of the environment and natural resources to a new, national level, becoming the first Chief of Forestry Service, as well as two-term Pennsylvania Governor.

In his keynote address, USDA Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment Robert Bonnie took a moment to make the listeners laugh by contemplating how things have changed since Pinchot’s era. Pinchot had several hour long wrestling and boxing matches with President Theodore Roosevelt — both key players in the conservation movement.

“Somehow I don’t see President Obama inviting Chief Tidwell to the White House for a few hours of boxing. But you never know,” said Bonnie.

Tom Tidwell is the Chief of US Forest Service, who also emcee’d the ceremony.

Bonnie went on to talk about the dedication ceremony that took place in 1963 when the Pinchot family donated the site to the USDA Forest Service, with President John F. Kennedy delivering a speech to a crowd of thousands. Although nothing near that number were present on Saturday’s rededication, those there felt its importance listening to what the speakers had to say. Both Bonnie and Pennsylvania Secretary of Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Ellen Ferretti, referred to Grey Towers as ‘the hallowed ground for conservationist’, in honor of the pioneering, important work Pinchot started while living there.

Pinchot, together with President Roosevelt worked on establishing forest and conservation legislation.

“The fight was for conservation and natural resources. And they won,” said Bonnie. “Including 16 million acres they secured in the middle of the night when congress prohibited any new additions.”

Bonnie said Pinchot and Roosevelt won "on behalf of the common man."

“Today we face new challenges,” continued Bonnie. “Fires rage longer.”

He said that since the 1970s, average acreages burned have doubled from 3 to 4 million acres per year to more than 7 million acres, and are expected to double again by 2050. Fire seasons are 60 to 80 days longer than a few decades ago and fire behavior is more extreme. Fighting fires has reduced the money available for forest management that might prevent catastrophic fires, Bonnie explained.

Nels Johnson who chairs Pinchot Institute’s Board of Directors explained about three new, innovative approaches to conservation related problems. Pinchot Institute’s researchers have found out that the existing health care crisis impacts land owners.

“Pinchot Institute has been able to work with land owners in Oregon to manage their forests and exchange carbon credits with health providers to reduce their carbon print, and those purchases can then go to the Oregon landowners to provide for their health care, to pay their insurance. Now we have something that was a problem on two counts, and now it’s a positive on two counts,” he concluded.

“The Pinchot family was all about gathering people. Upper Delaware River is more important to more people than you think. Eighteen million people get their drinking water out of this river,” he continued, describing the second project. With less than $2 million and 125 landowners the Pinchot Institute’s Common Waters fund implemented practices to sustain or restore forests of almost 40,000 acres.

"Now Pinchot Institute is working to see if it can’t find even greater funding to help landowners do the right thing in the watershed," said Johnson.

Third, is the legacy to continue to advance democracy. Gifford’s grandson Peter Pinchot has been working in Ecuador that once had one of the richest forests in the world, that have now been replaced almost entirely by oil palm, except in the north western corner.

”There’s one big chunk left — because Peter has found ways to work with the communities who live there to convert to sustainable living rather than convert it to oil palm crops,” Johnson said. “And the balsam wood they’re harvesting has become the engine of conservation and income in the town of Cristobal Colon. It’s at the core of building rotors for wind turbines that now are a major factor in generating renewable energy around the world.”

“As a lifelong Pennsylvanian, I feel the pride and have a strong feeling that conservation is one thing that unites us as Pennsylvanians and as Americans,” said Ferreri in her remarks.

Ferreri was confirmed as the 5th Secretary of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources the previous day.

Delaware Valley High School Band provided music, and the mansion and grounds were open for touring.