On the grand scheme of things a few acres of chestnuts on Washington Island sounds small. And it is. But small is mighty. Here are 4 reasons why a chesetnut orchard can have a big impact:

1. Food: 1 acre of chesnut trees produces 1,000s of lbs of food each year. A chestnut tree can live for over 1,000 years. These trees will be productive for generations. This is what planting for the future looks likes.
2. Carbon Sequestration: As trees grow and root, they store and pump carbon into the ground to feed a diversity of life. This builds, and repairs soil, while diverting carbon from the atmospher into the soil. This is unlike most forms of agriculture.
3. Habitat: Trees are like apartment buildings for wildlife. Birds nest, rest, hunt for bugs. Trees provide shade and oxygen for humans and other animals.
4. Ripple effect: There will be an extrapolated impact. We are not only growing our own orchard, we are pushing the climate boundries for chestnuts and developing genetic lines of chestnuts that can be grown by others in northern climates.