Yesterday I wrote about the eastern hemlocks, which are on the cusp of disappearing from our forests. This is an American chestnut, a species that used to anchor our eastern forests (about 1/4 of the trees), but is now reduced to an extremely rare mature specimen, and a few natural-coppice-growth trees less than twenty years old or so, like this one. These commonly get the blight and die back.
By the way, don’t forget that we have also lost our American elms from our forests. They were also commonly chosen as shade trees along residential streets within their range.