Contact us at gro.fcat@retpahCYK
About Us
Hello from the Kentucky Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation!
We are an active group of Volunteers who work together to help the national effort to restore the American Chestnut back into its native forests. With our Partners, we manage several orchards of hybrid American Chestnuts and full American Chestnuts that facilitate breeding options.
Wild American Chestnuts are still found across Kentucky in their native range forests. While an extremely small number of wild American Chestnut trees survive the blight to grow large enough to produce flowers and burrs, there are many sprouts that grow from the roots of the original trees. Take a look at the original American Chestnut Range Map. American chestnuts like well-drained, acidic sandstone soils. They do not like low acidic clay soils or soils and low areas that hold water.
We invite you to help search for wild Americans and to record them on the free ‘TreeSnap’ app. Or you can contact us via our Kentucky Chapter Facebook Page to let us know their location and if you need help to ID that your trees are full American or a Chinese or Japanese Chestnut, or a hybrid with mixed parentage. You can see general locations of wild American Chestnuts found and mapped to date on the TreeSnap website: https://treesnap.org/ Choose “MAP” from the menu to see general tree locations, with the knowledge that the app moves the exact tree locations by about five miles each to protect the individual trees and the landowners. With the “OBSERVATION CATEGORY” filter box, select “American Chestnut” to remove the visual clutter of other species that are also entered into TreeSnap.
JOIN US. Become a Member. Become a Volunteer. Click on the BECOME A MEMBER button to the right to simultaneously join the national TACF organization, plus the Kentucky Chapter. You will enjoy working beside and developing friendships with many other conservation minded people who are taking a variety of actions to do our part, along with our sister Appalachian state chestnut chapters, to restore this iconic American tree.
Kentucky Chapter Menu
Kentucky Facebook
LEAF SAMPLES COLLECTED FROM 350 TREES in TACF / EKU Partnership Chestnut Seed Orchard, Richmond, KY Recurrent Genomic Selection (RGS) tacf.org/tree-breeding/
Thank you to the Volunteers who completed this large Action Project (over a
three day period): Saturday May 17, Wednesday May 21, Thursday May 22.
Cassie Stark, TACF Charlottesville, VA Office Alisa Prasertphon, TACF Charlottesville, VA Office Patti Darnell, KY TACF, Mt. Sterling, KY Ken Darnell, KY TACF, Mt. Sterling, KY Tandy Deskins, EKU Facilities Team and KY TACF Richmond, KY Robert Griffin, KY TACF, Crittenden, KY Walter Rybka and Sister, KY TACF, Morehead, KY Dana Nelson, University of Kentucky Dr. Austin Thomas, US Forest Service, Southern Research Station Abigail West, University of Kentucky Jared Calvert, USFS Daniel Boone National Forest Jacob Royce, USFS Daniel Boone National Forest Rachel Hartline, USFS Daniel Boone National Forest Eric Sizemore, USFS Daniel Boone National Forest
Day One: 3,489 hybrid American Chestnut tree positions across the full
orchard were "planting spot" counted, with the 350 standing trees
numbered with a lumber latex paint marker, by Ken and Patti Darnell. This
allowed Count Work Sheets to be pre printed by Cassie and Alisa.
Day Two: Cassie (TACF Regional Science Coordinator) and Alisa (TACF
Summer Intern) traveled from Charlottesville, VA to EKU Orchard to complete
pre work and planning for the biggest day coming on Thursday May 22nd.
Tandy Deskins mowed the orchard again for the second time in two weeks to
have the grounds totally ready for collecting leaf samples.
Day Three: Thursday morning beginning 9:00 am, Cassie teaches the leaf sampling and data collection process to our awesome Volunteer TEAM. See Photos of leaf sample collection, with three
Collection TEAMS. *****
Cassie estimates that leaf samples will be completed late 2025. The
results will be used to cut out the lesser blight resistant trees in Spring
2026, to continue our selection down to the best 1-2% of the trees that will
be kept for "next generation" breeding.
Awesome TEAM Work from a variety of Partners, Volunteers, TACF Members. * * * * * * *
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Volunteering at The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) KENTUCKY CHAPTER
Volunteers are the backbone of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF), contributing their time, talents, and energy to the restoration of this iconic species. Our volunteers have always been an integral part of the Foundation and we are truly grateful for their commitment and passion to our long-term mission. We cannot do this work alone!
Volunteering with KY TACF allows you to learn new skills while participating in an historical effort to restore a species and help heal the environment. It allows you to meet other individuals whose passions align with your own, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to feel great about the work you do!
Ways to Get Involved
• Planting
• Pollinating
• Harvesting
• Orchard maintenance and tree care
• Events
• Education and outreach
• Social media and website administration
• Volunteer coordination
• Identifying wild American chestnuts
Would you click on the link below to enter your contact information and complete the VOLUNTEER WAIVER at the bottom. You only need to sign up ONE TIME for all events, all years. 😊
Typing your name works as your Signature. 😊 The process takes about two minutes. …….and if you have children that you hope to bring to Volunteer Events, please complete a Volunteer Sign Up and Waiver for each of them *****
Our compliments to the National TACF Staff for working the past two years to streamline this process. * * *
theamericanchestnutfoundation.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=99172
Or You Can Go through the TACF website: www.tacf.org / ENGAGE / VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES / KENTUCKY / APPLY NOW / Complete the information / SUBMIT
Thanks everyone
Ken Darnell Mt. Sterling, KY
KY TACF Chapter President
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Planted 17 Full American Seedlings in Partnership Germplasm Conservation Orchard at Army Corps of Engineer's Green River Lake, Taylor County Wednesday April 30, 2025
Thank you to KY TACF's long time Partners, the Army Corps of Engineers for providing the land, and deer cages for this Orchard to preserve DNA of Kentucky full American Chestnuts. Thank you to Lead Ranger Larry Lemmon, Maint. Dept's Stephen Turner, for their hands on help today, plus their mowing crew who had the site well prepared.
Additionally, special thanks to long time Partner, Steve Hartman, Scottsville, KY for sustaining his full American Orchard with Warren County DNA. Steve provided 20 nuts last fall that the KY Chapter stratified in cold storage, potted on February 12th, cared for by EKU Biology Department for several weeks, then "hardened off" on Patti Darnell's partially shaded back deck. Chapter President Ken Darnell drove the seedlings and protective tree shelters to Green River Lake today. In other words, LOTS OF TEAMWORK TO MAKE IT HAPPEN * * * * *
The Green River leaders will be planting several of our "Better" hybrid seedlings at their Office / Visitor Center for educational purposes. TACF signage is in place to help the public learn about our many actions to help RESTORE THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT. * * * * * *
We invite you to JOIN the Kentucky Team: support.tacf.org/membership Choose the Kentucky Chapter
Hannah Leeper TACF #fullamericanchestnutskentucky
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Latest News
Using Pollen from Land Between The Lakes
WE’RE SO HAPPY …….. RETURNED TO STEVE HARTMAN FULL AMERICAN ORCHARD, SCOTTSVILLE, KY near Tennessee Border to apply pollen from three LBL wild Americans, harvested, processed and stored last June by Lee Grace, UK Forestry Technician, from trees previously TreeSnapped...
KY TACF Partnership with USFS Daniel Boone National Forest
Thank you Scott Ray for inviting us to attend DBNF Annual Meeting held at Berea College Dr. Ellen Crocker, Scott Ray, and Ken Darnell, KY TACF Board Members, conducted a presentation on TreeSnap and the State University of New York's "Darling 58" transgenic American...
Many Miles Completed in Search for wild, full American Chestnuts Across Kentucky
Our Kentucky Volunteers have driven and hiked many miles across the state searching wild full American Chestnuts and “Snapped” them into our data base using the free TreeSnap app. We estimate that we have observed close to 4,000 wild Americans, “Snapping” 1,543...