Chestnut Blight

Chestnut trees were wiped out by a fungus many decades ago, but the same amazingly persistent roots keep resprouting, only to be attacked once again by the fungus as soon as they get an inch or two in diameter. They die back and resprout over and over. Here is a Chestnut sapling located on Dominick Trail, just north of Nells Rock Trail, that recently succumbed another round of the blight. There were still some brown leaves attached to the otherwise bare sapling, and the fungus had a fresh orange color.

Only a few inches away a much smaller Chestnut sapling, probably from the same root system, was untouched by the fungus. For now, anyway.