By Barbara Kessler Green Right Now As summer sets in, many of us
are looking to shade those windows any way we can, and one of
the greenest solutions is to add greenery. Outside the window,
that is. A shade tree can mitigate the heat gain on a west or
south-facing window and truly cut down on electricity costs. The
trouble is — it takes a few years to maximize its effect. Even
if you plant a big tree, it will be a while before it’s settled
in and leafing out. Which brings us to a project at Purdue
University. Scientists there have been studying a new hybrid
species of the American chestnut, a tree that can grow much
faster and larger than other hardwood varieties. They think it
could be a good bet to shade your windows, built new forests
that could be sustainably harvested and in the process sequester
a whole lot of carbon more efficiently than many other trees
could. They’ve compared the American chestnut to quaking aspen,
red pine and white pine and found that the chestnut grew faster
and had three times mo