Learn why chestnuts and pigeons were an important part of Christmas
Once upon a Christmas past, there were chestnuts roasting on open fires and pigeons stewing on every stove.
The widespread culinary pleasures of sweet chestnuts and succulent game birds derived from two notable -- and remarkably abundant -- natural resources: the American chestnut tree and the passenger pigeon. Today, the only chestnuts to roast are imported Chinese varieties, and holiday feasts feature factory-farmed birds hunted from the freezer section at the grocery store. The chestnut and the passenger pigeon are ghosts of Christmas past.
What follows is a different sort of Christmas story, a tale of two species in an ever-changing world.
No one alive today has seen the grandeur of a chestnut tree nor experienced a stand of chestnut trees laden with the weight of a thousand passenger pigeons at roost.
Both the tree and the bird inspired superlatives from folks who knew them. The American chestnut was, by all accounts, an awesome tree. Old timers referred to it as royalty, calling it "the king of the forest," "a majestic giant," and "a noble tree." It was big and it was abundant.
The really big chestnuts stood about 90 feet tall, and one giant reached 120 feet. The tall ones had impressive girth to match -- the record was a specimen in North Carolina that measured 17½ feet in diameter. These grand trees were so numerous that if you took a walk in some woods back in 1800, one out of every three trees you'd see would be an American chestnut. Ecologists estimate over 3.5 billion chestnut trees thrived in the eastern forests at the time of European settlement.
The dominance and abundance of the chestnut made it a major player in the forest ecosystem and in the economy of the growing nation. Many claim that the American chestnut was the most important hardwood in North America. The wood was strong, rot-resistant, and durable.
Chestnut lumber was ubiquitous in 19th century buildings and construction. It was used for flooring, siding, fence posts, furniture, railroad ties, telegraph poles, construction beams, caskets and -- well, everything including the kitchen sink. Today, beautiful antique drysinks made of chestnut fetch top dollar in antique stores.
One of the chestnut's key partners in the forest ecosystem was the pigeon, who feasted on bountiful crops of chestnuts, as well as acorns and beechnuts. These phenomenal birds moved in huge swaths across the forested landscape of the eastern United States. Passenger pigeon populations ranged from 3 to 5 billion (that's right -- billion) birds.
The enormity of their flocks was, as one observed said, "beyond the power of this pencil to portray." Others who attempted to convey the impact of a migrating flock likened the experience to a tornado darkening the sky.
"The air rumbled and turned cold," wrote Jennifer Price who wrote of the passenger pigeon in her 1999 publication Flight Maps. "Bird dung fell like hail. Horses stopped and trembled in their tracks, and chickens went in to roost."
Passenger pigeons -- not to be confused with the decidedly unpopular feral pigeons found on city sidewalks these days -- were good to eat and easy to hunt. There are accounts of Philadelphians climbing on their rooftops some years and knocking the birds out of the sky. If using a gun, you could hardly miss when shooting into a cloud of several thousand birds.
In colonial America, recipes for passenger pigeons abounded. The birds were, as Price recounts, "broiled and roasted … stewed in gravy and jellied in calf's-foot broth, and salted in barrels." Up to half a dozen pigeons would be baked in pigeon pot pie, a common Christmas dish made all the more festive by "three feet nicely cleaned" sticking up in the center of the pie "to show what pie it is."
The pigeon and the chestnut thus graced the tables of holiday celebrants everywhere in the young United States. These iconic species represented the unfathomable wealth of natural resources in this rich and prosperous land. The seemingly limitless resources, however, are gone.
The first to fall was the passenger pigeon. A perfect storm of unregulated hunting, wanton killing, and a dramatic loss in forest habitat brewed in the mid- to late-1800s. By 1914, a lone female passenger pigeon named Martha died in the Cincinnati Zoo and the passenger pigeon, once the most abundant bird on earth, was declared extinct.
The reign of the chestnut came to an inglorious close soon after Martha's demise. A fatal fungus arrived on the east coast as a hitchhiker on imported Asian chestnut trees. Discovered in New York in 1904, it took but a few years to find its way into the woods. Once established, the fungus spread like wildfire through the entire range of the American chestnut. No chestnut trees were immune to the blight. The windborne spores insinuated themselves into every nook and cranny of the forest, entering any existing wound or crack in chestnut bark. Year after year, millions of trees turned to skeletons, and by the 1930s the American chestnut was nothing but a phantom of the eastern forest.
Efforts to salvage chestnut wood were fast and furious as the blight decimated the eastern forest. People combed the woods to remove any standing chestnut "snags" and downed trees that could be turned into sawlogs. Meanwhile, efforts to salvage the species were -- and continue to be -- prodigious. Relentless research and tireless field work is ongoing, and many hold out the hope that this keystone species can be saved from the brink of extinction.
The story, however, is open ended. It's a tale that's still evolving with lessons to be learned and hope to be kindled.
Lesson number one: Be grateful for the abundance of our natural resources, and never EVER take this abundance for granted. No one in their wildest dreams would have foreseen a forest without chestnuts, nor the complete disappearance of the prolific pigeon. Inexhaustible resources are not what they seem. And extinction is forever.
Lesson number two: Combat homelessness - preserve habitat. Even if Martha had not died a spinster in the Cincinnati Zoo, the vast forest ecosystem that passenger pigeons required was severely compromised. Fragments of forest cannot support billions of gregarious birds. And chestnut trees cannot grow on concrete. If the chestnut is to make a comeback, we need to insure a place for it to come back to. Thus, our challenge today is to protect species by restoring and preserving healthy, intact ecosystems.
Perhaps we are learning the lessons the hard way, one species, one ecosystem at a time. A glimmer of hope appeared early this winter in the graceful form of two large white birds on a windswept prairie in southern Kane County. A pair of Whooping Cranes was spotted at the Sauer Family Farm forest preserve in Sugar Grove.
Here was Martha reincarnated, with a boyfriend no less! The whooping crane has teetered on the precipice of extinction for over 60 years. From an all-time low of just 21 individuals in 1941 the Whooping Crane population has reached 485 birds today. It has been an arduous climb made possible by preservation, protection, and restoration of habitat. Here, on a recently restored prairie in Kane County, the sight of two whooping cranes proved that the story is not yet over and there are chapters yet to write.
Very well for the birds, but is there hope for the trees? Forest ecologists, quick to respond to the threat of the invasive Asian Long-horned Beetle, the Emerald Ash Borer and the Gypsy Moth, have thwarted potential disaster on several fronts. Their unflagging efforts to protect native trees from foreign pathogens may well prevent another blight in our woodlands, or at the very least buy precious time for the survival of our hardwood trees.
This Christmas, you may be roasting imported chestnuts while Jack Frost's nipping at your nose. Your Christmas bird may have a pop-up timer instead of feet sticking out of a pie. Regardless of the ghosts of Christmas Past, be mindful of nature's blessings this Christmas present. And envision a Christmas future of bountiful wildlife in a healthy wild world.
Enjoy and learn
Enjoy the wildlife of Kane County's natural areas during the holidays. Kane County forest preserves are open daily from 8 a.m. till sunset and offer miles of trails for hiking, skiing and wildlife watching. Join forest preserve district naturalists for these free nature walks:
Tracks and Trails - Participants will look for signs of animal activity in the woods and prairie. Learn how to recognize the footprints of native mammals and identify signs left by wildlife. You can be a nature detective, reading clues to solve the mysteries of who's been out and about in the woods.
From 1 to 2:30 p.m. Dec. 26 at Tekakwitha Woods, St. Charles
Owls in the Winter Woods - One of the most mysterious yet fascinating denizens of the dark is the owl. Come to this evening program and learn about the natural history of native owls, and their impact on human culture as well as their place in ecological communities. After introductory activities indoors, you will head out into the woods to look for Great Horned Owls and Screech Owls. For ages 8 and above.
From 4-5:30 p.m. Dec. 27 at Tekakwitha Woods, St. Charles
Habitat Hideouts - Home is where the habitat is, but where do animals hide out in the dead of winter? Find out on this guided hike through the woods. You'll learn the requirements of good habitat for our native wildlife and discover how animals have winterized their homes.
From 10 to 11:30 a.m. Dec. 29 at Maegher Forest Preserve, Gilberts
New Year's Resolution Hike For a salubrious start to the new year, head to the woods! This nature walk is suitable for any and all who are awake, coherent, and eager to shake off the excesses of the night -- or year -- before. Bring a coffee mug and it will be filled with hot coffee. Bring binoculars and you'll see some cool birds.
From 9 to 10 a.m. Jan. 1, 2008, at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve, St. Charles