VA Seed Orchard Planting – Banshee Reeks

Come help us sow chestnuts in one of our three seed orchards. These orchards are part of our plan to make many thousands of chestnuts available for future restoration plantings in the forests of Virginia.

Get your hands a little dirty gently planting chestnuts in the ground and setting up small tubes to protect them from critters. See the amazing growth of chestnuts planted there over the last few years. Learn about chestnut restoration from your fellow volunteers.

Saturday, March 16, 8:30am to 3:00 pm, Banshee Reeks
21085 The Woods Rd, Leesburg, VA 20175
Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve

RSVP to vachestnut@gmail.com. Please indicate which events you wish to attend.

Be sure to check out all our events this March!

SEED ORCHARD PLANTINGS

Saturday, March 9, 8:30 am to 3:00 pm Blandy Experimental Farm (event page)
Chestnut Seed Orchard
400 Blandy Farm Ln, Boyce, VA 22620
Chestnut Seed Orchard

Saturday, March 16, 8:30 am to 3:00 pm, Banshee Reeks (event page)
21085 The Woods Rd, Leesburg, VA 20175
Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve

Saturday, March 23, 8:30 am to 3:00 pm, Sky Meadows State Park (event page)
11012 Edmonds Ln, Delaplane, VA 20144
Sky Meadows State Park

SPECIAL GUIDED TOUR: (event page)
Saturday, March 30, 9:30am to Noon, Lesesne State Forest
Lesesne State Forest
Latitude/Longitude: 37° 50′ 32.3″, -78° 57′ 50.0″

Learn about the History of Chestnut Breeding
Join us for a walking tour of Lesesne State Forest, where chestnut breeding has been going on since 1968. See large surviving American chestnuts that we grafted there in the 1980s, 56-year hybrid chestnuts from Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, several generations of backcross chestnuts, and controlled crosses of large surviving American chestnuts. You will see varying degrees of blight resistance. This is one of the largest plantings of blight-resistant chestnuts. 

RSVP to vachestnut@gmail.com Please indicate which events you wish to attend.