In 1892, convicts cut trees from Militia Hill and surrounding hillsides so soldiers could spot attacking miners, and many of those trees were American chestnuts. Neither convicts nor soldiers could have known that a fungus carried by Chinese chestnuts brought to New York City in 1904 would decimate the remaining American chestnuts within a few decades. The American Chestnut Foundation is developing a blight-resistant hybrid so the American chestnut can regain its crown as king of the forest. Because chestnuts prefer loose, rocky ground, modern surface mines provide ideal locations for planting blight-resistant hybrids where they can spread to surrounding forests.