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
Amazing Achievement by Green Forests Work, Partner with many organizations, including KY Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation
Over 250,000 trees have been planted at three sites thus far in 2026, bringing Green Forests Work’s total number of trees planted to over 8 million! Green Forests Works mixes into their plantings, as many chestnut seedlings as they can acquire each year. * * * *
"GFW’s vision is to create a renewable and sustainable multi-use resource that will provide economic opportunities while enhancing the local and global environment. By converting reclaimed, non-native grasslands and shrublands into healthy, productive forestland, GFW is effectively addressing two needs of the region. Our reforestation projects provide jobs for equipment operators, nursery workers, and tree planters, and improve the environment by eradicating non-native species and restoring ecosystem services. "
There is so much more to share about Green Forests Work:
www.greenforestswork.org/
www.greenforestswork.org/_files/ugd/f07753_2f691b58747b450d82959a22c9236a48.pdf
www.facebook.com/Greenforestswork/
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Collection of dormant "Scions" from wild American Chestnuts March 3, 2026
On a day with steady rain.....another key action to help preserve KY American Chestnut DNA for future tree breeding options.
Thanks to years of searching for wild American Chestnuts and documenting them in the TreeSnap.org APP, KY Chapter President Ken Darnell was able to guide Dr. Austin Thomas of UK Forestry Dept., and KY Chapter Board Member, to several widely scattered wild American Chestnuts.
40 scions were chosen by Dr. Thomas, wrapped in wet paper towels and placed into location labeled, one gallon size baggies. These scions will be kept moist and refrigerated for around two weeks until prime grafting time.
Dr. Thomas is experimenting with grafting scions that that are a few inches long onto "large" Chinese Chestnut trees to reduce the potential of blight, and to maximize the growth of these scions into branches that will be control pollinated to produce full American nuts, with full Kentucky DNA, that can be planted into our full American GCO Orchard (Germplasm Conservation Orchard) to expand our on hand inventory of Kentucky DNA diversity.
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Looks like fun! Can't wait to see how they turn out!
Great work!
Kentucky Chapter Partnered with Kentucky Division of Forestry, UK Forestry Department, Greenup High School FFA Chapter, and several other Conservation Groups at "WOODS and WILDLIFE for YOUR WALLET" February 26, 2026 This was the 10th Annual event.
Greenup County is within the original range of the American Chestnut in northeast Kentucky.
Thank you Bill Knott, KDF Chief Forester Morehead Branch for inviting us. 😃
First photo shows veteran KDF Ranger and KY Chapter Board Member with Ken Darnell, KY Chapter President, talking with interested "Chestnutters" at KY TACF Display Table. We picked up 12 people who signed our request form for more information, which will quickly be emailed to them.
Greenup High School FFA coordinated a wonderful BBQ dinner for all.
Presentations were conducted in three different classrooms, every 45 minutes, allowed attendees to choose three out of nine presentations to attend. See last photo with Presentation Schedule.
Besides meeting new people interested in the work of national TACF and of the Kentucky Chapter's work, we were able to "catch up" with several veteran Partners and Volunteers. * * * * *
Door prizes donated by the participating organizations, and were given away after the last round of Presentations. Kentucky Chapter donated two groups of three germinating full American Chestnuts with rodent shelters and stakes, plus two dormant seedlings with shelters and stakes.
@Kentucky Division of Forestry
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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...