Courtney Streett (right foreground) gazes up at the American chestnut tree in Delaware with other hikers as guide Joe Sebastiani (gray baseball cap) gives a tutorial. (Cris Barrish/WHYY) Octogenarian ...
“We called them gray ghosts,” the now 77-year-old retired forester says of the American chestnut tree scattered throughout his former North Carolina home and still towering over the forest floors.