Gary Hawley – President

Gary Hawley is an Environmental Sciences and Forestry faculty member in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont.  He is also a member of the Williston, VT Conservation Commission for over 25 years.  Hawley’s research interests include assessments of forest genetics and physiological responses to environmental stresses such as climate change and anthropogenic pollution.  He has been involved in several American chestnut research projects including cold tolerance assessments, evaluation of the growth of multiple seed sources and performance of blight resistant hybrids relative to other forest tree species. This work is being conducted with the TACF and US Forest Service.  Hawley also has been heavily involved and has directed many of the activities surrounding the green renovation of the Aiken Center and other Rubenstein School buildings at the University of Vermont.  This nearly 20-year process includes teaching a yearly course titled “The Greening of Rubenstein Interns” that has guided students through many aspects of energy efficiency upgrades and is currently pushing ahead to Net Zero Energy for these buildings.

Kendra Collins – Vice President

Dan Jones – Secretary

Dan Jones lives in Windsor, Vermont where he manages the Windsor Grasslands Germplasm Conservation Orchard. He has been a member of TACF since 2019 and served as secretary of the Vermont-New Hampshire chapter during 2024-2026. He coordinated the chapter’s nut distribution program and has participated in numerous field activities – pollinating, harvesting, planting, and orchard maintenance.

Will Abbott – Treasurer

Will and his wife Alicia live in Holderness, NH, in a home that they purchased in 1993 with the help of a local realtor named Doug McLane. Will recently retired from the Society for the Protection of NH Forests, where he ran the public policy shop and oversaw the stewardship of the Society’s 57,000 acres of forest land. He has had a life-long fascination with trees, particularly the American Chestnut and the American Elm, and the potential to restore each to their original range.

Marla Binzel

Marla Binzel retired from the Texas A& M University System where she taught courses in Crop Biotechnology and Introduction to Horticulture.  A component of her research program involved creating and evaluating transgenic plants.   She returned home to the Lake Sunapee region ten years ago and currently owns a 275-acre wooded parcel in Springfield, NH that is being placed into conservation.  She recently planted 100 American chestnut seedlings on that land, and is evaluating several silvicultural practices to advance our understanding of what management practices will be most cost and labor effective as the chapter begins ramping up efforts to plant chestnuts in forest ecosystems. Marla serves as the chapter’s representative to TACF’s National Restoration Committee. In that role she has been helping develop TACF’s strategic plans for how the organization will approach restoration and reintroduction in the next decade and beyond.

Tom Estill

My caring for, and interest in, the outdoors has been a lifelong passion of mine. It carried over into my career as a science educator with a BA in biology and MEd in Env. Sci. Ed. One of my greatest joys in life is sharing what I have learned in the outdoors with others. I currently serve as a volunteer Sci. Ed. Specialist at a school in Rutland, VT and as a Naturalist at Pine Hill Park, also in Rutland, where, among other things, I look over the care of 50 American Chestnuts. I am also in charge of the Rutland GCO, and am in the middle of planting American chestnut seedlings in each of the schools in Rutland as an Ed. and Outreach activity. It is so rewarding to know I am a part of the movement to help bring back the American Chestnut.

Dr. Gillian Galford

Dr. Gillian Galford is an expert in ecosystems ecology and global change. In addition to research and teaching at the University of Vermont in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources and Gund Institute for Environment, Dr. Galford leads the Vermont Climate Assessment. Her research spans from the forests of Vermont to the Amazon. 

Dr. Ann Hazelrigg

Ann has been a plant pathologist with UVM Extension for 35 years. She is the Director of the Plant Diagnostic Clinic and works with farmers and gardeners to diagnose insect, disease and weed problems. She is involved in many research projects that typically focus on diseases and organic agriculture. In her spare time she is a struggling fiddler and is excited to add chestnuts to her home arboretum!

John Holland

Curt Laffin

Curt Laffin, and his wife Carol, have actively participated in nearly all types of VT/NH Chapter activities, especially outreach and communication. Curt is a wildlife biologist retired from the US Fish & wildlife Service. He and Carol live in Hudson, NH.

Lewis LaClair

Lewis LaClair grew up in Walpole, NH, and is blessed to be back in that beautiful town. As a youth he worked with his father on a small woodlot harvesting chestnut sawlogs, tending natural regeneration, and learning about the chestnut blight, which sparked his lifelong love of forests. Lewis and his father purchased second woodlot and managed it together, working on their shared passion for responsible forestry and ecosystem stewardship. Today Lewis manages seven woodlots and is still learning and doing all he can to improve the quality of each forest.. After retiring from a 38‑year career in risk management, a USDA representative encouraged him to explore growing chestnut seedlings for future American chestnut restoration, leading him to connect with Doug McLane of the VT/NH TACF chapter. With Doug’s guidance, Lewis began growing seedlings in 2021, establishing the third NH/VT GCO and distributing additional seedlings to regional organizations to expand interest in TACF. Lewis remains deeply committed to supporting the chapter’s mission and stays actively involved in workshops, field work, and outreach.

Doug McLane

Doug McLane and his wife Sue have been active in chestnut restoration since the formation of the VT/NH Chapter. Doug’s favorite activity is tending the Chapter nursery and the ever-growing germplasm conservation orchard here in Plymouth, NH. It is a pleasure to have a chance to lead our Chapter into the challenging future of chestnuts.

Don Merkle

Don Merkle developed a love of trees while growing up in Bartonsville, Vermont on what had been a small fifty-acre dairy farm.  As a young man he enjoyed working with wood as a carpenter including rough sawn siding, hand split cedar roof shakes, and square nailed random width pine flooring. He built his first home, a Vermont Log Home, for his young family in Rochester. Don lives in Rutland in the same house he built for himself and his wife Donna fifty years ago while finishing his degree under the G.I. Bill. Since then, he has planted more than 300 trees including eight B3F3 chestnut hybrids on their less than one acre lot. Now in his eighties he still enjoys hand splitting his own firewood with a sledge and mall. He is proud to help play, however small a part in the reintroduction of the chestnut in the wild.

Dr. Jess Wikle

Jess Wikle is the Manager of the UVM Research Forests and a faculty member in the forestry program. Prior to moving to Vermont, she worked as a consulting forester in southern New England. She is excited about the prospect of healthy chestnuts returning to New England forests in the future.

Regional Science Coordinator – Deni Ranguelova (non-voting)