Virginia News

Successful Day Inoculating at New Kent

We had a great day on July 20th at the New Kent Forestry Center!  It was a gorgeous day and we stayed cool enough in the shade of the ops building. With 24 folks working, we were able to inoculate about 1400 chestnut seedlings in under 5 hours.  That’s pretty impressive and it shows how much progress we can make when you are willing to volunteer to help out!

Volunteers inoculating chestnut seedlings at New Kent Forestry Center

Many hands make quick work!

Having a great team of volunteers made it a very successful day!

The volunteers stand behind their handiwork.

The best part is how much fun it was working with great folks.  So with total sincerity, I thank you all.  I feel really great about our day and I’m really excited for this research.  Fingers crossed, we will learn important and exciting things about the ability of these chestnut trees to survive when replanted.

Another notice will be posted in a couple weeks as we start rating cankers.  Any volunteers interested in helping with that will be welcome.  Stay tuned.

Thanks again and I hope to see you all again soon.

Kindest regards,

Tom

Thomas McNeill Saielli

Mid-Atlantic Regional Science Coordinator

The American Chestnut Foundation

900 Natural Resources Dr

Charlottesville, VA 22903

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Small Stem Assays involve inoculating young chestnut stems with the blight fungus and monitoring the resulting cankers, allowing researchers to assess how well different trees respond to infection.

#educational #Informative #americanchestnut #fieldwork #explore
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You don't find out if the tree is resistant until it matures. That could be a decade later.

I am always amazed how big you all can grow them in 1 year. That is how big my second year seed8 gs always are!

Last week, staff at TACF’s national office in Asheville joined Carolinas Chapter President Peggy McDonald, husband Bob, and Chapter board member Jon Taylor for a hike at Albert Mountain in Western NC to visit wild American chestnut trees in search of flowering catkins.

During their venture, the team also came across a few cool amphibians: a red-legged salamander, which only inhabits portions of the southern Appalachian Mountains, and a red-spotted newt, which is much more common, but its brilliant red is stunning!

Of course, the biggest thrill was seeing large surviving chestnut trees and, as the day wrapped up, collecting some beautiful catkins that were high in the canopy of a tree on the way down the mountain. Pollen collected from the catkins will be used in TACF’s southern region breeding program.

#hike #nature #getoutside #americanchestnut #pollination
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Whoa. Fascinating that some mature American Chestnuts have survived the blight. Taking pollen from these survivors is such a great idea. I didn't realize there were any survivors in NC.

Ils sont en fleur au Québec aussi, ça fait du bien de les voir grandir.

Fantastic

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Trying to figure out if you found an American chestnut or a Chinese chestnut? These identifiers should help!

#explore #forestry #education #americanchestnut #conservation
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I love it when the music is up front and the narration is in the background. Awesome.

BeeKeeper Mango

Every business in every city should have to plant a tree every year as part of their yearly licensing.

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Very informative!Image attachmentImage attachment+1Image attachment

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Mary Armentrout-Acord

Do you have a favorite nature quote?

#explore #americanchestnut #nature #quote #restoration
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“Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.” Henry David Thoreau

Im hoping to see this in my lifetime

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