Blight wiped out the American chestnut. Scientists are close to bringing it back

Article can be a bit confusing is that it discusses both GMO and normal cross breeding methods of inserting blight resistance into the American Chestnut tree.

It get's more confusing when it brings in the anti-genetic engineering arguments and it doesn't really ever mention if there is any opposition to using the traditionally cross-breed variant.

I planted a hybrid chestnut about 10yr ago. At that time the trunk was about the diameter of my wrist. Today it's not too much narrower than my 79cm waist, already a big tree. The nuts are good too, but a lot of work to extract, they have a spiny covering that takes gloves and pliers to remove.