Hoosier National Forest staff collected over 1000 pounds of butternut seeds from a pure butternut seed orchard in Huntingburg, Indiana earlier this month for conservation and research.
“The seeds produced by butternut trees in their natural environment are prized by wildlife and people alike due to their quality taste and high fat content,” said district ranger Chris Thornton. “Unfortunately, butternuts have been decimated by the invasive butternut canker fungus."
The seeds will go to the Purdue University Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center, a partnership between Purdue University and the USDA Forest Service.
Caleb Kell, operational tree breeder with the HTIRC, will take the nuts through the next steps of the process.
“There are currently two main paths for conservation of the butternut,” he said. “Planting pure butternuts across the landscape for conservation purposes, and creating hybrids with Japanese walnut, Juglans ailantifolia, to find a strain resistant to the fungal canker.”
Some will be used for grown in nurseries, while some will be used to create hybrids to find a strain resistant to the fungus for conservation. Some will be planted at the HTIRC and used for genetic research.
Keith Woeste, the Forest Service national program lead for genetics and biodiversity conservation research & development, researches the conservation genetics of butternuts and now has an interest in the cultural connection between butternuts and the Native American tribes that used them. He attended the seed collection event.
He plans to provide processed nuts for the first time this year to the Delaware Tribe of Indians, now located in Oklahoma.
The Forest Service has previously planted butternuts in Hoosier National Forest and plans to add more.
The butternut seed orchard in Huntingburg has no signs of the canker fungus.
