BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 4, 2021A coastal Maine orchard is one of only three spots in the country where researchers have planted what could be the forest of the future. But what makes that future different is that it contains the next wave of American chestnut trees — the kind made in a lab. Last week, after receiving a permit from the federal government, Maine scientist Thomas Klak and his team planted hundreds of transgenic chestnut seedlings in an experimental orchard in the remote coastal town of Cape Elizabeth. If the experiment helps restore the mighty chestnut to American forests, it would be “the biggest ecological turnaround in North American history,” said Klak, a gene conservationist with the American Chestnut Foundationand a major player in the national restoration effort.