Virginia forestry officials are cutting the first newly-grown American chestnut trees in nearly 70 years.

American chestnut was once a common and valuable tree, but blight in the 1920s wiped out virtually all of them. Now, the department is working to bring the trees back to the Shenandoah Valley.

Sawyers who have worked with wood for decades are experiencing a first: They're cutting pure American chestnut lumber, which came from newly-planted chestnut trees in the Lesesne State Forest in Nelson County.

"It’s an opportunity most sawyers wouldn't have," Brookside Farm Sawmill Services owner Jim Hart said.

When several of the department's chestnut trees started to die earlier this year, the decision was made to harvest the lumber.

"It gave us an opportunity to use them and to saw them into boards, which are going to be used for research purposes," Forest Utilization and Marketing Specialist Joe Lehnen said.

Each log is turned into wooden boards and marked according to the tree it came from. Right now, newly-grown chestnut is not able to be used commercially.

"We're still developing a resistant strain of the tree that is of good enough quality to be able to make lumber out of it," Lehnen said. "Right now it’s invaluable, because it’s just so rare. So I couldn't even begin to put a price on it, it's probably much higher right now than tropical hardwoods"

New markets for chestnut products could also support restoration efforts. The goal is to one day re-establish the American chestnut in forests throughout the country.

"In 10 years I hope the American chestnut is being planted up and down the East Coast and out into the Midwest so that everybody can enjoy what was once a magnificent tree that was part of the native ecosystem," Lehnen said.

The Virginia Department of Forestry will use the chestnut planks for projects like educational demonstrations, wood displays at their headquarters, and even possibly furniture built by local artisans.