Georgia News

Annual Member Meeting Saturday, April 13, 10am to noon, at The Atlanta History Center

Final announcement: Members and non-members are welcome!!

Please register for GA-TACF’s Annual Meeting

Atlanta History Center Saturday April 13, 10 am – 12 noon.

Register Here!

Please join us at the Atlanta History Center on Saturday April 13 (10 am – 12 noon) to learn about The American Chestnut Foundation’s efforts to restore the American chestnut tree — once the mighty giants of the Eastern US forests, over 4 billion trees were lost to blight and root rot disease in the mid 20th century. Members and non-members are equally welcome!

TACF has been working over 35 years to restore this important part of our forest lands via backcross breeding and transgenic research. Please join us for this informative meeting where you can learn of our progress, how you can help with the progress, and meet others interested in our mission.

Our featured speaker will be Trent Deason (UTC) who is working on a program to conserve American chestnuts via grafting methods. Following his presentation, Trent will give a short demo of the techniques he is using.

Our complete agenda is copied below.

Following lunch at nearby restaurants, tours of the beautiful Goizueta Gardens (free) and the newly relocated and refurbished Cyclorama (with entrance fee) are optional activities at the Atlanta History Center.

Please click on the link below to register (free!).

Agenda

1. Opening Remarks
Kathy Patrick, Chapter President

2. Introductions – meet the chapter officers and board members
Mark Stoakes, Chapter Vice President

3. Review and acceptance of 2018 member meeting minutes
Jack Rogers, Chapter Secretary

4. Overview from The American Chestnut Foundation
Lisa Thompson, CEO, TACF

5. Georgia’s Disease Resistance Breeding Program update
Dr. Martin Cipollini, Professor, Berry College

6. Treasurer’s Report and Review of Budget
Dr. Martin Cipollini, Chapter Treasurer

7. Replacement of outgoing board members, nominations and voting
Kathy Patrick, Chapter President

8. Conservation of American chestnut via grafting (presentation and demonstration)
Trent Deason, University of Tennessee – Chattanooga

9. Audience questions and comments

10. Closing remarks and adjournment
Kathy Patrick, Chapter President

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On Friday March 6 faculty and staff at the University of North Georgia (UNG) added about 70 chestnuts by direct seeding to the Hurricane Creek orchard near Dahlonega. Karrie Ann Fadroski, Outreach and Engagement Coordinator for UNG’s Environmental Leadership Center (ELC) and Stacie James, Program Coordinator for the ELC, were assisted by Dr. Martin Cipollini, President and Science Coordinator for GA-TACF as well as several UNG student volunteers. Student participants included Chestnut student intern Lillian McGinnis, Hurricane Creek student intern Jason Richardson, Conservation student intern Reece Maxwell, Kylee Melton, Ava Minor, Mary Alice Olewicz, and Jack Nicholas.

This orchard is designed to screen hybrid chestnuts for Phytophthora Root Rot (PRR) resistance (pure American chestnuts are entirely susceptible to PRR). Seeds selected for this orchard come from trees known or suspected to carry PRR resistance, in this case from two trees at the Berry College backcross orchard. Read elsewhere on our Facebook page about how to protect chestnuts from this lethal disease if you have planted susceptible trees.

To learn more about this work and what you can do to become involved, please come to our annual meeting on May 2 at the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center in Buford. Details are forthcoming, but the meeting will be held in the morning with lunch and a tour at Cloudland Vineyards in the early afternoon.
The American Chestnut Foundation University of North Georgia Berry College
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On Friday March 6 faculty and staff at the University of North Georgia (UNG) added about 70 chestnuts by direct seeding to the Hurricane Creek orchard near Dahlonega.  Karrie Ann Fadroski, Outreach and Engagement Coordinator for UNG’s Environmental Leadership Center (ELC) and Stacie James, Program Coordinator for the ELC, were assisted by Dr. Martin Cipollini, President and Science Coordinator for GA-TACF as well as several UNG student volunteers.  Student participants included Chestnut student intern Lillian McGinnis, Hurricane Creek student intern Jason Richardson, Conservation student intern Reece Maxwell, Kylee Melton, Ava Minor, Mary Alice Olewicz, and Jack Nicholas.This orchard is designed to screen hybrid chestnuts for Phytophthora Root Rot (PRR) resistance (pure American chestnuts are entirely susceptible to PRR).  Seeds selected for this orchard come from trees known or suspected to carry PRR resistance, in this case from two trees at the Berry College backcross orchard.  Read elsewhere on our Facebook page about how to protect chestnuts from this lethal disease if you have planted susceptible trees.To learn more about this work and what you can do to become involved, please come to our annual meeting on May 2 at the Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center in Buford.  Details are forthcoming, but the meeting will be held in the morning with lunch and a tour at Cloudland Vineyards in the early afternoon.The American Chestnut Foundation University of North Georgia Berry CollegeImage attachmentImage attachment+7Image attachment

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Hard to believe these students are in their late 30s now...

Coincidentally, exactly 17 years ago on March 6, 2009, Berry College students planted the parents of the seeds planted at UNG. Here are just a couple pictures from that day.

Dr. Martin Cipollini, President and Science Coordinator of The Georgia Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation, presented an overview of the organization's Recurrent Genomic Selection (RGS) chestnut breeding program during the Tennessee chapter's annual meeting at Tennessee Tech, subsequently chairing the Southern Regional Science meeting held in conjunction with the TN-TACF meeting. At the latter meeting, chapter leaders discussed how to cooperate to implement RGS regionally and initiated plans for the coming breeding season. They also welcomed newly hired TACF Regional Science Coordinator Zach Anderson who has been working with Dr. Hill Craddock at the University of Tennessee - Chattanooga. Zach's office will be located in Chattanooga. The American Chestnut Foundation ... See MoreSee Less

Dr. Martin Cipollini, President and Science Coordinator of The Georgia Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation, presented an overview of the organizations Recurrent Genomic Selection (RGS) chestnut breeding program during the Tennessee chapters annual meeting at Tennessee Tech, subsequently chairing the Southern Regional Science meeting held in conjunction with the TN-TACF meeting. At the latter meeting, chapter leaders discussed how to cooperate to implement RGS regionally and initiated plans for the coming breeding season. They also welcomed newly hired TACF Regional Science Coordinator Zach Anderson who has been working with Dr. Hill Craddock at the University of Tennessee - Chattanooga. Zachs office will be located in Chattanooga.  The American Chestnut Foundation
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