Research and Breeding
Here is information and some links to the types of research and breeding activities that GA-TACF supports.
Mother Trees
Chapter members spend hours searching the mountains and hillsides of Georgia for American chestnut root sprouts that can be placed into our breeding program. One of the Chapter’s first pure American chestnut trees was found on Springer Mountain by Thomas Fowler and placed in the breeding program during the Chapter’s first breeding season. Since then many other trees have been located with the “Klaus” tree near Warm Springs bringing attention world wide as the most southern tree in the piedmont area.
Without the help of volunteers identifying new trees, our breeding program would come to a halt. Each “mother tree” can only be used to cross with one type of resistant pollen from TACF’s Meadowview Research Farm to produce about 100 backcross trees. This is usually accomplished within 2 years. The more trees we find, the more diverse the gene pool will become.
Orchards
Once nuts are harvested from the resulting backcrosses a suitable orchard must be located to plant them. Berry College was the first to offer a site that would house over 200 trees. The University of Georgia’s Mountain Research and Education Center in Blairsville became our second backcross orchard. Since then we have received many offers for orchard sites that are now in the testing stage. We test for soil suitability, predator protection and overall tree care to determine the best locations for advanced backcross trees. If you are interested in hosting a backcross or demonstration orchard, please contact us at gachapter@acf.org.
Georgia Chapter Menu
Georgia Facebook
We want to thank our volunteers for the fine effort given over the past two days. Including Berry College students, we had 20 different volunteers put in a total of 85 person/hrs on our small stem assay project. That’s more than two weeks work in 2 days! The data look good and we have the seedlings sorted out and back in the nursery where students watered them today.
Again, many thanks for the great work. We hope that the volunteers learned a few things while gaining some appreciation of the difficult task of breeding for blight resistance. A parallel study using the same family lines is being evaluated at UT Chattanooga this week, and the data from the two studies will be combined for data analysis. We will let everyone know what we learn from this project once the numbers are crunched and ready to be talked about! The American Chestnut Foundation
1 CommentComment on Facebook
BTW - the photo shows a stem tip of a seedling that has been subjected to a small stem assay for blight resistance. Starting at the tip, we measure the full darkened zone as well as the orange-colored zone. The larger these values are the less resistance the seedling exhibits.
Our next big event will be a volunteer opportunity at Berry College this Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct 8 and 9. We will be measuring cankers on a set of small stem assays on chestnut seedlings that we inoculated 90 days earlier. Some of you may have helped us with those inoculations.
Volunteers may arrive at any time between 9 am and 2 pm on Tuesday and between 10 am and 2 pm on Wednesday. We plan to finish each day by 5 pm. The work is very easy and no special skills are needed.
Berry College is just north of Rome on Rt. 27. Go through the Visitor Center and ask for directions to McAllister Hall. We will be around back at the southeastern corner of McAllister, near the greenhouse and nursery.
Hope to see you there! The American Chestnut Foundation
0 CommentsComment on Facebook
This is a final announcement for this Thursday's Chestnutoberfest at River Remedy in Rome (4 - 9 pm). Read more about that in our separate post. We'd love to see you there!
As you may know, TACF's headquarters is in Asheville, NC. The town and much of western NC has been devastated by Hurricane Helene. TACF’s office is closed for an indefinite time frame, with power, water, and much of cell service out. As far as we know, the staff are safe, although several remain out of communication.
GA-TACF would like to encourage chestnut devotees to donate funds toward hurricane relief in western NC. Click this link to access several legitimate sites where donations will be put to good use. Thank you!
List: Ways to donate and help flood victims in Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene
www.bpr.org
Hurricane Helene unleashed devastating flooding in the mountains of North Carolina. Here are ways to help local flood victims in Western North Carolina by donating relief funds or volunteering.0 CommentsComment on Facebook
Latest News
GA-TACF Annual Meeting May 11, 2024
The American Chestnut Foundation Georgia Chapter (GA-TACF) Annual Meeting Announcement The Georgia Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation will convene for its annual meeting on May 11th, 2024 at 10:00 AM, at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources,...
GA-TACF By-laws Update
Copied below is a draft of updated by-laws for GA-TACF that will be presented and adopted at the annual meeting at UGA, May 11. Many thanks to Scott Laseter for re-drafting these by-laws. Please excuse formatting errors and use horizontal scroll bars to read through...
American chestnut seeds available from GA-TACF
NOTE: We have allocated all of the seeds from the 2023 seed crop! We hope to run this promotion again next year (January 2025). Special offer for new or renewing GA-TACF members If you join TACF, renew a lapsed membership, or renew early plus add a donation of at...