Chestnut champions quit over genetic engineering

SPENCER – The president and a board member of the local chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation announced they are resigning to protest the organization’s support for genetically modified American chestnut trees.

Board President Lois Breault-Melican and her husband, Denis M. Melican of the Massachusetts/Rhode Island Chapter of the foundation, made the announcement Thursday after working for 16 years to help bring back the American chestnut species through backcross breeding.

They said they simply do not believe in genetic engineering and they are skeptical about what impact the process could have on the environment and people’s health.

“We are unwilling to lift a finger, donate a nickel or spend one minute of our time assisting the development of genetically engineered trees or using the American chestnut to promote biotechnology in forests as any kind of benefit to the environment. The GE American chestnut is draining the idealism and integrity from TACF,” the Melicans said.

“There is just no reason for taking the risks involved with genetically engineering the American chestnut. The local TACF chapters have been working for years and having great success developing blight-resistant American chestnut trees using backcross breeding.”

Before the 1900s, the majestic American chestnut tree was one of the most plentiful and most utilized trees in the forest. One in four hardwood trees in the forest was an American chestnut. Its wood was used for an array of purposes, including the building of homes. Its nuts provided highly nutritious food for humans and animals.

Then one of the greatest natural disasters in forest history struck. In 1904, a devastating fungus was discovered on chestnut trees in New York’s Bronx Zoo. Within a few decades, the chestnut blight had killed over 4 billion chestnut trees on more than 200 million acres in eastern North America.

The scattered small chestnut trees that grow in the wild today have sprouted from the still-living roots of the massive trees that fell to the blight.

The American Chestnut Foundation, founded in 1936, and its chapters have worked to try to bring the tree back by using back crossbreeding. The six-generation process involves breeding two plants that could naturally breed together until the desired result is achieved. In this case, it’s the blight-resistant Chinese chestnut tree and the American chestnut tree.

For nearly 30 years, researchers at State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, in a tightly controlled environment, have been involved in The American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project, an effort to develop a blight-resistant American chestnut tree through genetic engineering. A wheat gene is inserted into the tree. The gene codes for an enzyme that breaks down the acid that the fungal pathogen releases, which kills the trees.

In 2014, the researchers said a blight-resistant tree had been developed. Its nuts are the same as those of the indigenous American chestnut tree. The project is nearing a point where the United States departments of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency are expected to soon address some concerns before a determination is made whether the genetically modified chestnut tree is safe to be introduced into the wild.

The Melicans, both retired state Department of Conservation and Recreation employees, said they have been considering resigning from The American Chestnut Foundation for a couple of years because of the project.

Brian E. Clark, vice president of orchard development for the Massachusetts/Rhode Island chapter, said he’s sad to see the Melicans resign. He said they have been tremendous contributors and have worked tirelessly. He said he will withhold his judgement on the SUNY ESF project until more testing is done. But he said he is not opposed to GMO.

“I think genetic engineering is the next big technological wave that’s going to have a profound effect on our civilization,” he said, adding that 80 percent of insulin is produced by a GMO bacteria and that it was used in a cure for former President Jimmy Carter's brain cancer. "It's a new technology that has tremendous benefit when used appropriately."

Anne Petermann, executive director of Global Justice Ecology Project, an organization that has led international efforts to protect forests and communities from genetically engineered trees since 2003, expressed disappointment in TACF's involvement or support of genetically engineered chestnut trees.

"TACF was founded to bring back the American chestnut, yet their national leadership is allowing the chestnut to be genetically engineered and used to promote the ludicrous idea that GE trees can improve the forest health," she said in a prepared statement. "In reality, GE American chestnuts are being used as a Trojan horse to open the door to GE trees like poplar and eucalyptus being developed for large-scale industrial plantations."

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