SANFORD — This spring, a local land trust plans to plant a living legacy for future generations.

It is a project, said Sanford Springvale Mousam Way Land Trust President Gordon “Bud” Johnston, that will go on for 30 to 50 years.

Planters and planners will draw on the lessons of nature and reach back into the history of this country to help reintroduce a tree species that all but vanished from the landscape about 100 years ago.

According to The American Chestnut Foundation, the American chestnut tree grew over 200 million acres from southern Maine to Florida, until it succumbed to a lethal fungus known as the chestnut blight during the first half of the 20th century.

The land trust intends to plant seedlings developed from a hybridization of sprouts from the American chestnut and Chinese chestnut. The land trust sought ”“ and heartily received ”“ the nod from the town council a week ago to plant seedlings on property known as the Town Farm on Hanson’s Ridge Road.

Johnston said research shows the blight was traced to the Bronx Zoo in 1904. While it infected as many as three billion trees, not all died completely, and when the vegetation died off, some sprouts emerged, but the blight often reemerged as well.

The American Chestnut Foundation was formed by a group of plant scientists in 1983, and in 2005, it harvested the first potentially blight-resistant chestnuts. As time passed and the work continued, some plantings were made. The first in Maine was made in Bradley, about 10 miles north of Bangor, in 2010, said Glen Rea, president of the Maine chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation.

The majestic American chestnut tree was the “the perfect tree,” according to Rea. The wood of the chestnut was used in making fine furniture. It was useful for split rail fences, and the chestnuts are a high-protein, low-fat food ”“ both for humans and for wildlife like beavers and turkeys that thrive on the seeds of the chestnut tree.

“When it disappeared, there was a tremendous ecological impact,” said Rea in a telephone interview from his Bangor home earlier this week.

He said seeds of the American chestnut will grow 18 inches the first year, two feet the second and then three to four feet a year. They often grow to be more than 100 feet tall. Trees begin to produce seed in seven to eight years, Rea estimated.

Johnston, a botanist who is retired from a long career at universities and high schools, said the project at Hanson’s Ridge Road will involve removing trees and shrubs from about half an acre for sunlight. Sanford students would help plant the seedlings.

The reintroduction of the American chestnut to Sanford is a perfect for the land trust, said Johnston, who pointed out that one of the goals of the trust is to reintroduce vanished or uncommon tree species to the forests.

The Town Farm property is owned by the town and the land trust is holder of a conservation easement. The property is managed by McDougal Orchards, which leases the land, and the experimental planting is incorporated into the property’s forest management plan.

Plantings are expected to take place later this year.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.