Bronx Zoo plants mini-forest of functionally extinct trees after species was ravaged fungus

The zoo is branching out.The Bronx Zoo introduced a “functionally extinct” tree species at its grounds Monday — more than a century after the institution’s own scientist discovered a deadly fungus was decimating the plants.Twenty American Chestnut saplings were scattered across three sites at the sprawling conservation center, including at the footsteps of Tiger Mountain, as part of a city-wide effort to breathe life back into the species.“It’s historic for us.We haven’t had chestnuts on property here for a hundred years,” Craig Piper, the interim director of the Bronx Zoo, told The Post as he watched his team tenderly plant the tiny trees.

“The thought of bringing them back and bringing them to once again be part of the hardwood forests of New York City, that’s exciting for us,” he said.The zoo’s mini forest, erected in conjunction with the New York Restoration Project (NYRP), marks the first time American Chestnuts have been on the zoo’s property since its former Chief Forester discovered a “deadly fungus” was eating away at the gorgeous, 100-foot-tall trees.Hermann Merkel was the first to document the blight in 1904 — writing that “unless some radical measures are taken, or a natural enemy of this fungus develops, it is safe to predict that not a live specimen of the American Chestnut will be found two years hence in the neighborhood of the Zoological Park,” the former name of the Bronx Zoo.The blight would go on to decimate nearly 4 billion American chestnut trees across North America, rendering it “functionally extinct.”But the 20 saplings aren’t exactly the same trees whose canopy once blanketed the US — the 3-foot-tall trees planted Monday are a hybrid mix that horticulturalists hope will make them stronger against the blight they expect to eventually creep onto the trees.“These trees most likely will get the disease, and it will impact them.But we also expect them to grow,” said Jason Smith, the NYRP’s Dire...