WHY WE PUT THIS TOGETHER

Why put together a whole field guide for one tree?

Because most folks walking Ozark ridges right now have no idea they might be standing next to one. We didn't either, until we sat down with A.J. Hendershott from the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation for Ep. 215 and 216.

Ninety years ago, the Ozark chinquapin made up close to a fifth of the forest on some ridgetops. Families gathered the nuts by the wagonload. Kids stuffed their pockets on the way to school. It was just part of life out here, the way white oak or hickory is now.

Then a blight came through in the 1960s and took nearly all of it, in the space of a single generation.

What's left mostly survives as root sprouts, hanging on, dying back, sending up new growth, and getting hit again. The Ozark Chinquapin Foundation has spent almost twenty years working to change that.

This guide is our way of putting what we learned from A.J. into something you can actually carry with you, so if you cross paths with one out there, you'll know what you're looking at.