A nearly forgotten part of the natural history of the Ozarks is beginning to re-emerge in the forests of southern Missouri.
Steve Bost, a park interpreter at Montauk State Park near Salem, Mo., has been leading the fight to resurrect the Ozark Chinquapin tree, a species native to the Ozarks of Arkansas and Missouri that all but disappeared in the mid-20th century.
Bost said that although he grew up in the region, he had never heard of the Chinquapin until an acquaintance from Ozark began describing them to him in the late 1990s.
“It was like listening to someone talk about a funeral, a death,” Bost said. “Like other people, I thought that, along with the American Chestnut, the Ozark Chinquapin had disappeared from the land.”
Both trees went into a drastic decline after a strain of blight from a Japanese Chestnut tree imported to New York about 1904 spread nationwide. Many people assumed both trees to be extinct or beyond the hope of recovery.
“Experts told me there weren’t any trees, only blighted sprouts,” Bost said. “There was a huge gap in knowledge.”
Bost said when spotted his first Chinquapin in early 2006, he realized that all was not lost.
Bost had already been conducting a campaign to raise public awareness of the trees through a series of seminars beginning in 2001. In 2007, he and a group of fellow enthusiasts began planting test plots in several counties throughout southeastern Missouri. Two years later, they began cultivating a crop of about 130 Chinquapins on a test farm in an undisclosed location in Missouri, using Chinqua-pin seeds from throughout the tree’s habitat region.
The project has at times become all-consuming. “This has grown so big, it’s like a full-time job times three,” Bost said. “I try to keep things balanced between work and family, but I’m working 20 to 30 hours a week on this tree.”
A.J. Hendershott, a regional supervisor with the Missouri Department of Conservation, has worked with Bost on the ongoing Chinquapin restoration efforts and said that bringing the tree back to healthy numbers will benefit the overall health of the Ozarks ecosystem.
“Think about nature as a big symphony,” Hendershott said. “Every species has a part to play. When you’re missing an instrument, it makes the music less sweet.”
Henderson said the Chinquapin nut is remarkable in both taste and nutrition. It’s sweet, with no tannic acid to create bitterness, and contains about three times as much protein as an oak acorn.
“Most people I’ve allowed to eat one of these, they immediately say, ‘This is a tree worth saving,’” Hendershott said.
The wood of a healthy Chinquapin is highly rot-resistant, and Native American tribes rooted in the region are believed to have found many uses for it, as well as medicinal uses for the leaves and nuts, Hendershott said. But there are large gaps in the natural historical record of the trees, because it is extremely difficult to distinguish Chinquapin nuts from those of oak trees. Even between fresh samples, it takes a trained eye to tell one from another, Bost said.
The Ozark Chinquapin typically produces nuts after about three years and takes about 20 years to reach a fully matured height ofmore than 50 feet and a diameter of two to three feet, Bost said. The leaves tend to be about 2 inches wide and 5 inches to 10 inches long, with an exaggerated sawtooth pattern along the edges.
While previous efforts to bring back endangered species like the American Elm have used hybridization techniques to strengthen tree populations, the Ozark Chinquapin Society is trying to establish a 100 percent pure Chinquapin that is naturally resistant to blight.
Hendershott and Bost have been cross-pollinating between Chinquapins to produce sprouts that will select for blight resistance. This sometimes involves collecting pollen spores from one Chinquapin, then driving several hundred miles to dust the pollen across the female flowers of another.
About two in every 10 seeds produced by properly cross-bred Chinquapins will have greater natural blight resistance, Bost said.
Six years into the effort, Bost said, the largest of his trees are more than 20 feet tall. Chinquapins are peculiar among trees in that they thrive in rocky soil and require little water.
“Completely opposite of every other tree I’ve ever seen,” Bost said.
The Ozark Chinquapin Foundation is preparing to take its efforts to a new level on several fronts, Bost said. The organization plans to apply for tax-exempt 501(c)3 status and seek grants to pay for widespread seeding projects, making the seed available to the public for planting on public and private land.
Both Bost and Henderson will speak Friday at the foundation’s annual meeting at Hobbs State Park Conservation Area Visitor Center. The 9 a.m. meeting is open to the public. In addition to ecological experts, individuals with personal anecdotes of the trees will share memories.
Bost hopes interest in the trees continues to grow, and that the larger community will support its return.
“It’s not just a new tree for people, but a new food source for both animals and people,” Bost said. “There’s probably a lot of unwritten pages just waiting to be filled.”
Seating at the Hobbs State Park Conservation Area Visitor Center is limited. Those interested in attending Friday’s meeting can contact the park at (479) 789-5000 to determine availability.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 03/20/2013