Get American Chestnut Trees

Definition

A member planting is entirely for personal use and does not directly contribute to TACF’s outreach or science programs. This could be a single tree in a pot on your balcony, several trees in your backyard, or even hundreds of trees on your forested land.

Opportunities

Improved American Chestnut Trees

• Small scale (12 or fewer) – Become a Seed Level Member and receive an annual gift of improved American chestnut seeds. (Seeds cannot be shipped to Washington, Oregon, or California due to agricultural regulations.) Learn more on the Seeds page.
• Mid scale (13-49) – Become a member and your state chapter may occasionally provide opportunities for you to acquire improved trees.
• Large scale (50 or more) – If there is a surplus of seeds from TACF’s science program we may make these available to interested landowners. This is not offered most years. Fill out the form to be added to the regional waiting list.

Wild-Type American Chestnut Trees

• Small scale (12 or fewer) – Become a member and get access to our Annual Wild-Type American Chestnut Seed Sale in the spring. Learn more on the Seeds page.
• Mid-to-large scale (13 or more) – Unfortunately, TACF does not currently have any opportunities to acquire larger quantities of wild-type American chestnut seeds or seedlings.

Definition

An outreach planting is a partnership between TACF and an individual or organization to plant American chestnut trees in a publicly accessible or visible location for demonstration purposes. Common locations are schools, parks, and arboretums. TACF provides trees and the partner handles the planting and maintenance of the trees. Orchard signs are available to purchase from TACF.

Eligibility

Sites are selected based on suitability for growing American chestnuts, the level of visibility, and the level of long-term maintenance that can be provided by the landowner or partners. To be considered, please fill out this form. When you select outreach planting, you’ll be asked to enter details about your location, site conditions, and your planting and care plan. Please note TACF only partners on outreach plantings within the 20 states that have a TACF chapter (see chapters map).

Opportunities

Ceremonial Plantings

A ceremonial planting is typically a small, high-profile planting, such as a tree at the state house or a few trees at the entrance to a nature center. TACF generally supplies its most advanced trees and the partner provides long-term care and maintenance.

Demonstration Plantings

A demonstration planting is usually a moderately sized planting with an educational goal.  For example, it may highlight the differences across breeding generations or chestnut species, or showcase a variety of planting techniques.  The format is relatively flexible if there is some tie-in to TACF’s mission and goals.

Definition

A science planting is a partnership between TACF and an individual or organization to plant American chestnut trees that directly contribute to TACF’s science program. TACF provides the trees and the landowner or partner handles the planting and maintenance.

Eligibility

Sites are selected based on suitability for growing American chestnuts and on the level of long-term maintenance and participation that can be provided by the landowner or partners. To be considered, please fill out this form. When you select science planting, you’ll be asked to enter details about your location, site conditions, and planting and care plan. Note TACF only partners on science plantings within the 20 states that have a TACF chapter (see chapters map).

Opportunities

The types of science planting opportunities are constantly changing and are dependent on the current needs of TACF’s science program.

Orchard Plantings

Orchards are large-scale plantings designed to meet a variety of TACF’s science program needs.

• Germplasm conservation orchard (GCO) – Designed to preserve the genetic diversity of regionally adapted wild-type American chestnuts.
• Breeding orchard – Contains progeny from select trees in TACF’s breeding program.
• Seed orchard – Produces seed for distribution. As of 2024-25 there is a need to establish a minimum of three primary seed orchards with at least three additional satellite backups to plant the top 10% of trees selected from TACF’s Recurrent Genomic Selection (RGS) breeding program.
• Progeny test – May aim to observe the long-term performance of improved trees without intervention, or may be inoculated and rated to provide more timely blight resistance results.
• Transgenic planting – Not yet available. Contains transgenic trees developed by partner labs. Currently, all transgenic plantings are conducted under permit by USDA-APHIS.

Research Plantings

These plantings are generally installed and maintained by research collaborators, with guidance and planting material provided by TACF.

• Research (General) – Covers research plantings not specifically addressed by one of the standard planting types. For example, a common garden experiment or a Phytophthora test planting.
• Reintroduction Trial – Evaluates the long-term silvicultural aspects of potentially blight-resistant American chestnut trees in a real-world forest setting.
• Restoration Trial – Not yet available. After parent trees pass in both blight-canker evaluations and progeny testing or genomic selection, seed from those trees may be placed into Restoration Trials.
• Restoration Planting – Not yet available. Trees in this class are expected to have reliably high levels of blight resistance. These trees will be the source of self-perpetuating, blight-resistant American chestnut populations.