Georgia News
GA-TACF Annual Membership Meeting 2021
Please join our Annual Georgia Chapter Member Meeting on May 22, 2021, 10 am – 12 noon (via Zoom; details and URL at the bottom of this page) Our special invited speaker will be Dr. Donald Davis, founding GA-TACF chapter president and author of the upcoming book "The...
Chestnut Grafting at Berry College
On Wednesday, April 8, 2021, GA-TACF volunteers initiated a third year of grafting attempts as part of our American chestnut gene conservation program. This phase of the work took place at the Berry College nursery. Scion material was collected in Jan-March from 15...
Georgia Chapter Request for Volunteer Roles
GA-TACF members, collaborators, and other “chestnut” people! For many years, the Georgia chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation has relied on our general membership primarily for volunteer work in the field (pollinations, harvests, plantings, orchard care). But...
More Chestnut Seedlings for the Roy Richards Seed Orchard!
The weather was fantastic (~50 degrees and sunny) for our chestnut planting at the Roy Richards “Southern Road” seed orchard this past Saturday! We want to thank everyone who participated for the enthusiastic help (see list below). Altogether, we added ~115 hybrid...
Flint PRR Orchard Expansion Completed
Great news! The long-sought after expansion of the Austin Flint Phytophthora screening orchard has been completed. This is a critically important project many years in the making. Many thanks to all who have been involved with this project since its inception. The...
Lake Allatoona Orchard Maintenance 2020
Georgia Chestnut Enthusiasts, We just wanted to give you a quick update showing some work being done on behalf of GA-TACF in Georgia. The series of photos below show groups of U.S. Army Corps staff and public volunteers engaging in major orchard maintenance work at...
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Did you know that private landowners - even homeowners with a big backyard - can help support GA-TACF by planting trees on our behalf? Here are just two examples, one a two year old tree planted in Paul Burks' backyard in Atlanta and one a 6 year old tree planted in Scott Frazier's Bottomlands orchard near Taylorsville. Looking good guys!
Read more about planting trees with us here: tacf.org/ga-news/so-you-want-to-plant-some-chestnuts/
The American Chestnut Foundation
Berry College
2 CommentsComment on Facebook
Beautiful form on that second tree
I have room to plant American Chestnut trees! I would definitely plant them, just tell me how to get them.
We want to thank all of the volunteers who helped us this pollination season which is now complete! We were able to bag and pollinate 10 different trees (a record for or us) plus we collected pollen from a number of other trees. This work is crucial for our Best X Best (or RGS) chestnut disease resistance breeding program. Altogether, over the past three weeks, we have had 20 different volunteers plus several more who volunteered but had their shifts cancelled due to weather. We thank all of you! GA-TACF is an all-volunteer organization except for a few interns that are obligated to certain orchard sites (Flint, Hurricane Creek).
Our next major volunteer efforts will start in mid-September when we will harvest and shuck burs and tabulate our harvest. Please stay tuned for announcements about these opportunities! Click here to register to volunteer with us or to sign the volunteer waiver form if you have not already done so: theamericanchestnutfoundation.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=99170
Here are a few more photos of our final two days when we were assisted by Berry College students who are working in Dr. Adrienne Ernst's lab this summer.
The American Chestnut Foundation
Berry College
1 CommentComment on Facebook
Great photos...wish I were there to help with this....I got experience operating one of those boon lifts last year!
Here is a short YouTube video showing how we process catkins and store pollen for chestnut breeding purposes. Pollens processed like this are being used in this summer's Best X Best breeding program.
We are still looking for assistance from chapter volunteers for this program!
Volunteers need not have experience; essential safety and pollination training will be provided at the start of each shift. Our next dates will be Tuesday June 9 and Wednesday June 10 (9 am - noon, and 1 - 5 pm shifts). We can only pollinate when it is not raining, but despite the chance of rain on those days we need to make an attempt at it. Our fallback "rain delay" date will be Thursday June 11. Harvest will take place in September and October when we again will need volunteer help.
If you have not already registered to volunteer with GA-TACF, please do so here: theamericanchestnutfoundation.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=99170
After you have registered, please sign up for pollination shifts here: theamericanchestnutfoundation.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=113887
I hope you will be able to help!
The American Chestnut Foundation Berry College
1 CommentComment on Facebook
Great video, Martin! Interesting and informative!