Bulldozer Clears Forest Destroyed by Chestnut Blight

In this 1949 photograph, a bulldozer clears a logging road through a forest decimated by Chestnut Blight. Beginning in 1904, the fungus Cryphonectria parasitica spread within eastern forests, damaging the American Chestnut's health, ultimately killing more than 3.5 billion trees, removing important habitats for wildlife populations (for example, bear, squirrel, and turkey), and leading to economic disaster within the communities that relied on them.