Experimental trials of GM chestnut trees at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Massachusetts. Public domain.

On August 20, the U.S. Department of Agriculture made the unprecedented decision to deregulate a transgenic American chestnut, Darling 54 (D54), genetically modified to contain oxalic oxidase (OxO), an enzyme from wheat, to resist the chestnut blight fungus. The D54 deregulation petition was submitted to USDA’s Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) by the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF).

With that decision, the US cleared the way for the world’s first ever genetically engineered plant designed explicitly for release and self-spread in wild ecosystems. That means that as soon as the Environmental Protection Agency gives final approval–transgenic chestnuts could be sold for unregulated planting across the eastern United States, including lands bordering State and National Forests and Parks, tribal lands, and commercial chestnut orchards.

Prior to that decision, on June 29, the EPA quietly closed the comment period for an Experimental Use Permit to grow the D54 in field trials on 280 acres across some 28 eastern states plus Washington, DC. Although the EPA acknowledged the permit “may be of regional and national significance,” it received only four comments—two from USDA and SUNY-ESF. Despite this lack of........

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