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But his legacy came at a cost which Appalachia has paid ever since: The imported chestnut blight killed nearly 4 billion American chestnut trees across 200 million acres of US forest.

When the 1904 chestnut blight hit, Flora was nearly a decade into her career at the USDA.

American chestnuts were once the dominant tree species in the Eastern United States, until the chestnut blight of the early 1900s killed almost all of them.

“You’ve got the American chestnut blight and the Dutch elm disease, but this seems extraordinarily rapid and severe.”

"You've got the American chestnut blight and the Dutch elm disease, but this seems extraordinarily rapid and severe."