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
We are GO for Volunteer Work Day at KY Division of Forestry's Morgan County Tree Nursery
Thursday October 23rd Beginning around 9:00 am
Near West Liberty KY 326 Tree Nursery Rd West Liberty, KY 41472
We can use another couple of Volunteers to help with some light trimming around our full American Chestnut trees See details in POST BELOW
RSVP: moc.rennurdaor@llenradkd
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Volunteer Work Day at KY Division of Forestry Morgan County Tree Nursery October 23rd
Hello Kentucky Chapter Members / Volunteers: Let us know if you are interested in the below TEAM WORKDAY A good chance to meet fellow Chestnutters and to see the KDF Morgan County Tree Nursery … and to work alongside some Partner Members of The KY Division of Forestry * * * * RSVP required Please see all details below 😊 Ken Darnell, KY TACF Chapter President
KY – Cutting Undesirable Tree Species and Briars, KDF Morgan County
October 23rd @ 9:00 am - 1:00 pm Address: 326 Tree Nursery Rd West Liberty, KY 41472
JOIN US to finish trimming out unwanted tree saplings and scattered briars that are mixed in our full American Chestnut breeding trees. Bring hand pruner saws, or small chain saws, hand pruners, leather gloves, water, snacks, and lunch.
The full American chestnut trees in this orchard are preserved from a variety of native sources.
We will be working with members of the KY Division of Forestry, who are veterans in caring for this beautiful and important orchard.
MUST RSVP to Ken Darnell, KY Chapter President: moc.rennurdaor@llenradkd. Address provided after RSVP.
Date:
October 23
Time:
9:00 am - 1:00 pm EDT
VENUE: KY Division of Forestry Morgan County Tree Nursery
ORGANIZER: Ken Darnell, KY Chapter President
Text: (859)585-9520
Email: moc.rennurdaor@llenradkd
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KY TACF Chapter Partnering with Kentucky Woodland Owners Association at their ANNUAL MEETING at KY Division of Forestry's Morgan County Tree Nursery ..... and at Natural Bridge State Park, KY October 6, 7, 8 2025
We appreciate the invitation from Portia Brown, President KWOA to set up KY TACF DISPLAY and to provide an update of latest TACF Science * * * * *
Several KY TACF Chapter Members attended, and cross pollinated with our KWOA Partners. Charlie Saunders, Dr. Ellen Crocker, Jimmie Sizemore, Harry Pelle, Bill Harned, Ken Darnell, Walter Rybka, Elaine Smith, "Ranger"
Kentucky Woodland Owners Association is doing good work across Kentucky:
www.kwoa.net/
Kentucky Division of Forestry
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Good luck with that.
Three of the best right there
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...