[mvidal01]

I read in the book "American Chestnut, The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree" by Susan Freinkel that when the blight was first discovered in the early 1900's scientists thought that cutting down chestnut trees in the east would stop the blight from spreading. Many trees were cut down that might have had some level of resistance to the blight.

[quixoticelixer-]

Or more likely they just didn't have the genetic diversity.