Natural Range of the American Chestnut
The American chestnut tree reigned over 200 million acres of eastern
woodlands from Maine to Florida, and from the Piedmont plateau in
the Carolinas west to the Ohio Valley, until succumbing to a lethal
fungus infestation, known as the chestnut blight, during the first half of
the 20th century. An estimated 4 billion American chestnuts,
up to 1/4 of the hardwood tree population, grew within this range.