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The Ghost Tree: Bringing Back the American Chestnut

Season 2 Episode 6 | 8m 15s

Billions of American chestnut trees once shaped life in Appalachia, but a foreign fungus erased them in a matter of decades. Today, only sickly sprouts remain — ghosts of a vanished ecosystem. Sara Fern Fitzsimmons and The American Chestnut Foundation are racing to breed resistance and restore the tree's ecological role. It’s slow, painstaking work — but it may hold the key to revival.

Extras
Step behind the scenes of Ken Burns’s new film to see how The American Revolution came to life.
Historian Stephen Conway. The American Revolution premieres November 16.
Historian Christopher Brown. The American Revolution premieres November 16.
Historian Jane Kamensky. The American Revolution premieres November 16.
Historian Stephen Conway on the psychological impact of Saratoga on the British.
The filmmakers on how understanding the people of the Revolution can help us understand who we are.
Filmmakers discuss how they used stories of both well-known and lesser known figures.
The filmmakers discuss how the story of The American Revolution came together.
The filmmakers discuss how they crafted imagery to help tell the story of the American Revolution.
Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt on the challenges of telling America's origin story.
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