Marty Cipollini, TACF’s GA-Chapter science coordinator and professor of biology at Berry College in Rome, GA is working diligently with the help of others to revive the American chestnut through painstaking development of potentially blight-resistant trees.
The late Ralph Henry, who lived on a mountain between Rome and Summerville, used to love to roast chestnuts and those that weren’t eaten were frequently used as hand warmers inside clothing during the cold winter months. When he found out about the research going on at Berry years ago, he contracted with the college and TACF’s GA Chapter to allow a research orchard to be developed on his property. That orchard is now one of the largest and most significant research sites not only in Georgia, but all of the Southeastern United States. Read the full article at the Rome News-Tribune.