Northampton County was on Thursday gifted 24 American chestnut tree saplings as part of an ongoing effort to reestablish the trees in Pennsylvania, according to a news release.

Sara Fitzsimmons, director of restoration for The American Chestnut Foundation -- the organization that donated the saplings -- said the tree was once abundant across Pennsylvania and the eastern United States and that it played an important role in regulating various forest ecosystems.

"There were approximately four billion American chestnut trees in the 1800s," Fitzsimmons said. "In the late 1800s, a fungal disease was brought over on Japanese chestnuts."

That fungus, she said, debilitated the trees, killing swaths of them and crippling millions of others. Today there are 430 million sprouts, but most never grow into full-sized trees because of the fungus, Fitzsimmons said.

That's why TACF, which was created in 1983 to breed a blight-resistant American chestnut, is planting saplings across the eastern seaboard, Fitzsimmons said. Outside of traditional breeding and planting, TACF is working with partner universities to develop hypovirulence, which weakens the blight fungus with a virus, and biotechnology, she said, which seeks to strengthen the tree itself against the fungus.

"The American Chestnut tree was vital to not only the ecology, but the economy of the Appalachian Mountains region as well," Fitzsimmons said.

Ecologically, she said the tree can produce two to three times the amount of hard mast -- think forest tree fruits like acorns and other nuts -- that other trees, like oaks, can produce. This hard mast, she said, is used as food for a variety of forest animals.

From an economic perspective, she said the American chestnut is a "jack-of-all-trades" species. While chestnuts aren't necessarily the best in any particular category, she said they grow quickly and are fairly rot-resistant.

Fitzsimmons added that in addition to Northampton County, the foundation has donated saplings to locations in Orefield, Philadelphia, and several others across the state.

The saplings donated to Northampton will be planted by the Parks and Recreation Department at various parks and on county-owned land, according to the release.

"We're thrilled to be a part of the effort to bring back the American chestnut tree," County Executive Lamont McClure said in the release. "To bring this tree back to our country would restore an important American legacy."

Jake Holland may be reached at jholland@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @jakewholland. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.