Connecticut News
Capturing Connecticut’s American chestnut Genes
By Gayle Kida Although there are currently thousands of small native American chestnut (Castanea dentata) sprouts in the understory of Connecticut's forests, only a rare few escape or survive blight long enough to grow to flowering size. Fewer still are located...
Strategic Vision
The Annual Meeting on March 14th features an excellent program with Prof. Fenny Dane as our keynote speaker, and excellent presentations by TACF Science Coordinators Sara Fitzsimmons and Kendra Gurney. If terrestrial ecology, species restoration, or simply the...
A Chestnut Stump Oddity
I thought I would share three small file size pics of what I believe to be a chestnut stump and its "companion tree" that is growing on a mountainside in East Granby, CT. The remnant stump measures 30 inches in diameter at the widest point, which I'm guessing is...
2008 Pollination Report
This summer, after five trees we hoped to pollinate did not work out, we went forward with creating lines from four new trees and made two re-pollinations. Between June 16 and June 29 flowers were pre-bagged to protect them from stray Chinese or hybrid chestnut...
Freinkel Awarded Nat'l Outdoor Book Award
Congratulations to Susan Freinkel, this years recipient of the National Outdoor Book Award for the Natural History category for her title American Chestnut: The Life, Death and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree, published by the University of California Press in Nov. 2007....
Chestnuts in China
I hope you get the chance to look at Sara Fitzsimmon's blog about the joint US/China scientific research visit to China. Sara blogged about the journey this past autumn which included Dr. Kim Steiner, Dr. Fred Paillet, Dr. Fred Hebard and Sara Fitzsimmons. The...
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National Facebook
Have a great photo of an American chestnut tree, bloom, bur, leaf, restoration planting, volunteer event, or wildlife interaction? We'd love to see it! (Photo pictured taken by 2025 2rd place winner Eric Sizemore)
First Place receives:
- Their photo featured on the cover of a future issue of Chestnut magazine
- A one-year TACF Seed Level Membership (a $300 value!)
- TACF merchandise
Second and Third Place winners will receive:
- TACF swag
- Recognition alongside the first-place winner in the 2027 Spring/Summer issue of Chestnut.
Submit your entries by December 31, 2026.
Visit the following link for more information and complete submission details: tacf.org/2026-photo-contest/
#AmericanChestnut #PhotoContest #TACF #ChestnutMagazine #ConservationPhotography #ForestRestoration #NaturePhotography
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Josh Roudebush win it all bro I might know a few big boys for the shot
A bee enjoying a well deserved break after the chestnut pollination period. The tree it rests on is a hybrid castanea pumila x alabamensis (dwarf chestnut x Alabama chinquapin).
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Voles got my chestnut, planted spring 2025
August Events! Double check with your states Chapter about events in your area.
Visit the following link for more information on the events: tacf.org/events/category/tacf/
#americanchestnut #Connecticut #NorthCarolina #SouthCarolina #getinvolved
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In a recent article for The Conversation, Dr. Steve Strauss discusses how advances in genomics and biotechnology are creating new opportunities to support chestnut restoration.
We're pleased to see perspectives from a longtime TACF collaborator. Steve served on our Science Advisory Review Committee in 2018 and currently has a pending proposal with TACF to improve genetic transformation methods for chestnut.
Give the article a read and let us know what part of chestnut restoration you're most excited about: theconversation.com/new-genetic-approaches-raise-hopes-for-restoring-the-american-chestnut-to-its...
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Somewhere, waiting discovery deep inside the remote part of a forest towers a thriving blight resistant nut filled American Chestnut (surrounded by dead ones just so we know it was exposed and surviving). We can hope. Taking inspiration from the Dogwood saga.
Professors at S.U.N.Y E.S.F put a wheat gene in to Chestnuts years ago and have growing them
I thought the blight only killed the tree above the ground and not the root system that's why the chestnut resprouts and grows until it gets a scar on it and the blight kills the sprouted tree back down to the ground leaving more viable root system to sprout again in the future.
Unlike most forest trees that rely mostly on wind, American chestnuts recruit insects too.
#americanchestnut #EnvironmentalEducation #pollinator #nativetrees #dronefootage
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Okay, who was in our Monocacy Orchard. MDTACF.