Good news indeed!   Thanks for sharing.

I hope they are starting to work on a solution for ash and walnut.

It's a viable solution to a real problem, if the alternative is to no longer have Chestnut trees.

See "Norman Borlaug/wheat"

RMW

They're making them disease resistant, not turning them into Ents.  Treebeard isn't going to show up and start throwing rocks at the Capitol...

We actually had one of the oldest chestnut trees in CT in my backyard. It was such a specimen that my arborist buddy brought other local arborists over to see it. In the fall i. Would shed the chestnuts, which is a spiked ball that the Devil invented. I used a chisel and hammer to get at the chestnuts. I ate a few. They were bitter, never roasted them. It would have been a time consuming process.

Last fall we had a freak snow storm in early fall in CT, while the leaves were still on the trees and suffered unbelievable limb damage. Five trees had to be removed including the chestnut, which lost 80% of its limbs. Our property looked like we had been hit with bombs. We lost power for nine days, i was out of work due to power loss for seven days. It was a big mess.

Secretly i am not sad to not have to clean up those spiked balls this year, Eric

There are so many reasons why i dont. The tree was barely standing on its own. It was rotting from the inside out. It was also "bleeding" a black tar like substance. It was hardly standing. My arborist friend has a friend with a Woodmizer who specializes in this type of thing and he said after 15 yrs of working with him, it wasnt even worth his time to look at it. I will try to find pics, but if you saw this thing, there was very little harvestable lumber. Unless you lived in a small section of CT, you have no idea what a natural disaster this was. Nearly a year later my friend is still cleaning properties. Sorry to disappoint, Eric

Eric, there are still limbs and trees falling in the woods around my house from that storm.

About the chestnut in your yard, there are still some Chestnuts around the state.  I have a yard I have been taking care of for many years that has one.  It is not an American Chetnut tho.  As with most of the "live" chestnuts, it is an oriental variety.  My daughter lived in Maryland for a few years.  There was a large chestnut on her property that i took care of for about three or four years until she decided enuf was enuf and moved away from the guy.  I consulted with an arborist who was (maybe still is) on how to care for the tree.  I send leaf samples to her and was told that tree was an oriental variety.  I suspect the tree in your yard may also have been NOT an American chestnut. 

I have read that the chestnuts are coming back in some ares thru cross polination between the American tree and several asian species. 

I have worked with chestnut and find it to be very workable.  The big problem with chestnut is that you do need to have an understanding of wood movement.  It is very high on the list for expansion and shrinkage.  I had a coffee table that was given to me by a cabinetmaker friend.  It had been one of his earliest projects.  The center panel was loose fit as with a door framed with a center panel.  He had made both frame and panel from chestnut with the panel loose fit, same as for a door panel.  During the summer, the table was fine.  during winter with heat in the house and low humidity, the table was almost useless.  The panel became so lose it would almost fall out. 
Tinker

Here's an interesting film about the realities of genetic engineering. It exposes the corruption and corporate interests that are behind it and also blasts the myth about feeding the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oupSrnbNlw4