American chestnut

Whether chronicling the tragic history of the American chestnut, or the anger of contemporary activists confronting climate change, Powers’ concentric plots spin.

Once called “the redwood of the east” with a typical height of more than 100 feet and a diameter up to 10 feet, the American chestnut is a historical icon of Appalachian ecology.

“We called them gray ghosts,” the now 77-year-old retired forester says of the American chestnut tree scattered throughout his former North Carolina home and still towering over the forest floors.

Within 50 years, the towering American chestnut trees were gone.

By springtime, the group had planted upward of 20,000 seedlings, a mix of 20 different native tree species including the American chestnut, the Virginia pine and a variety of oaks.