About Us
Hello from the Kentucky Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation!
We are an active group of Volunteers who work together to help the national effort to restore the American Chestnut back into its native forests. With our Partners, we manage several orchards of hybrid American Chestnuts and full American Chestnuts that facilitate breeding options.
Wild American Chestnuts are still found across Kentucky in their native range forests. While an extremely small number of wild American Chestnut trees survive the blight to grow large enough to produce flowers and burrs, there are many sprouts that grow from the roots of the original trees. Take a look at the original American Chestnut Range Map. American chestnuts like well-drained, acidic sandstone soils. They do not like low acidic clay soils or soils and low areas that hold water.
We invite you to help search for wild Americans and to record them on the free ‘TreeSnap’ app. Or you can contact us via our Kentucky Chapter Facebook Page to let us know their location and if you need help to ID that your trees are full American or a Chinese or Japanese Chestnut, or a hybrid with mixed parentage. You can see general locations of wild American Chestnuts found and mapped to date on the TreeSnap website: https://treesnap.org/ Choose “MAP” from the menu to see general tree locations, with the knowledge that the app moves the exact tree locations by about five miles each to protect the individual trees and the landowners. With the “OBSERVATION CATEGORY” filter box, select “American Chestnut” to remove the visual clutter of other species that are also entered into TreeSnap.
JOIN US. Become a Member. Become a Volunteer. Click on the BECOME A MEMBER button to the right to simultaneously join the national TACF organization, plus the Kentucky Chapter. You will enjoy working beside and developing friendships with many other conservation minded people who are taking a variety of actions to do our part, along with our sister Appalachian state chestnut chapters, to restore this iconic American tree.
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JOIN US *** KENTUCKY CHAPTER OF THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION
Thank you KY Members and Volunteers, and national TACF Staff * * * * * * Work is Play when we have other "Chestnutters" lending a hand.
Support US. Join US. support.tacf.org/membership Choose the Kentucky Chapter.
Or contact KY Chapter President, Ken Darnell, Mt. Sterling, KY moc.rennurdaor@llenradkd
Patti Darnell Clint Patterson @Luke Amis@Kentucky Division of Forestry
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Jennifer Koslow, Hannah Leeper TACF
Tandy Ann Deskins
Wild Flower / Chestnut Hike Jesse Stuart Nature Preserve Greenup County, KY Sunday April 6, 2025
Elizabeth Burge is Founder and President of Kyova Tri-State Wild Ones and Outreach Chairman for the Kentucky Native Plant Society. She is a native of the Ashland, Ky area, energetic and motivated to advance environmental stewardship.
Elizabeth works in Child Welfare and Environmental Social work in eastern Kentucky. She is dedicated to advocating for Appalachian families and environmental justice. Her role at the Commonwealth of Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services allows her to apply her motivation and skills to impact community health and family programs.
She invited KY TACF to attend a wild flower hike Sunday April 6th, with the goal of developing partnerships with Tri-State Wild Ones, and the multiple conservation groups who are their current partners. The KY Chapter does not have a presence in that area, and only one or two American Chestnut TreeSnaps by KDF Forester Bill Galloway. Elizabeth's event provided an opportunity to share the work of KY TACF and to develop new Partnerships. * * * * *
That's Elizabeth and son Will, in the first photo taking a selfie of the participants in Sunday's hike .... all motivated to hike the wet 1.6 mile nature trail in the 710 acre Jesse Stuart Nature Preserve.
eec.ky.gov/Nature-Preserves/Locations/Pages/Jesse-Stuart.aspx
www.pbs.org/video/jesse-stuart-state-nature-preserveus-marine-hospital-5sg6qv/ Fast forward to the few minutes in this KET Video to see the Jesse Stuart Nature Preserve ***
Also check out: Kentucky Native Plant Society's Wildflower Week 2025 Botany Blitz: www.knps.org/
The last photo is from TreeSnap. With no leaves out yet, there was no chance of finding any wild Americans, so I "SNAPPED" a couple of nice white oaks for the White Oak Initiative group, and to mark Sunday's hike location. (See Yellow Pins). You will see that Jesse Stuart Nature Preserve is in nice American Chestnut habitat just south of Greenup, KY, in the NE "corner" of Kentucky.
In addition to gaining the friendship and partnership of Elizabeth, two other attendees have a strong interest in American Chestnut: Professor Adam Wilson, Ohio University and Nate Adam, owner of a nearby Terrafate native plants nursery. I donated 6 germinated EKU hybrid Chestnut Seeds, plus shelters and stakes to Nate to plant at his Nursery. **** KY TACF information sent to them to invite more involvement with the KY Chapter. www.terrafate.com/
Even though it rained all day (Day four of steady rain) ..... thanks to rain gear, we had a very pleasant hike 😊
By Ken Darnell, KY Chapter President
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New Partnership with Army Corps of Engineers at Buckhorn Lake, Kentucky
Thank you ACE Ranger Luke Amis for your passion for American Chestnuts!!!
The KY Chapter donated 16 germinated hybrid American Chestnuts from our TACF / EKU hybrid orchard (B3F3 nuts which are approximately 94% American, 6% Chinese genes), and and 3 dormant seedlings, ready to plant. Luke planted for Public Education at the Corp's Office/Visitor area. He will keep them watered through the summer when the rains are lacking, and will add deer cages for protection when the seedlings grow out of their tree shelters (that were also donated by KY TACF).
When in the Buckhorn Lake area, stop in and visit Luke and check on the growth of this Public Planting. ***
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Latest News
Using Pollen from Land Between The Lakes
WE’RE SO HAPPY …….. RETURNED TO STEVE HARTMAN FULL AMERICAN ORCHARD, SCOTTSVILLE, KY near Tennessee Border to apply pollen from three LBL wild Americans, harvested, processed and stored last June by Lee Grace, UK Forestry Technician, from trees previously TreeSnapped...
KY TACF Partnership with USFS Daniel Boone National Forest
Thank you Scott Ray for inviting us to attend DBNF Annual Meeting held at Berea College Dr. Ellen Crocker, Scott Ray, and Ken Darnell, KY TACF Board Members, conducted a presentation on TreeSnap and the State University of New York's "Darling 58" transgenic American...
Many Miles Completed in Search for wild, full American Chestnuts Across Kentucky
Our Kentucky Volunteers have driven and hiked many miles across the state searching wild full American Chestnuts and “Snapped” them into our data base using the free TreeSnap app. We estimate that we have observed close to 4,000 wild Americans, “Snapping” 1,543...