Dan Brinkman

Dan Brinkman — a self-described tree nerd — knew he’d hit the jackpot when he was told about a tree … near Mount Brydges. To most, the tree looks like any other. Brinkman, a stewardship technician with the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority, was pretty certain this was an American chestnut, a species that once thrived in southern Ontario but has been nearly wiped out by blight in the past century. …It’s believed that up to two million American chestnuts once grew in southern Ontario’s Carolinian zone, a stretch of land that covers much of the area from Lake Huron to Lake Erie. But a tree-killing fungus has nearly doomed the species. …Now, with the permission of the landowner, there are plans to use the tree to grow others.