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
SUCCESSFUL 2024 KY CHAPTER ANNUAL MEETING at Eastern Kentucky University and TACF/EKU Partnership Regional Hybrid American Chestnut Orchard
Saturday August 24, 2024
40 attendees together produced an Awesome Annual Meeting in the EKU Science Building Atrium. Presentations by:
Dr. Jennifer Koslow, EKU Professor and KY Chapter Vice President
Dr. Will Pitt, TACF President and CEO
Dr. Vasiliy Lakoba, TACF Research Director at Meadowview, VA Orchards
Cassie Stark, TACF Regional Science Coordinator
Hannah Leeper, TACF Outreach Coordinator
Michael French, Green Forest Works and former KY Chapter Board Member
Ken Darnell, KY Chapter President, Meeting Emcee
Charlie Saunders, KY Chapter Board Member, acting Treasurer, Silent Auction & 50/50 Raffle
Patti Darnell, KY Volunteer, Snacks, Lunch, Social Leader
Dr. Albert Spencer, EKU Professor Emeritus, Master Woodcrafts Display
Followed by an optional Regional Hybrid American Chestnut Orchard Tour one mile south of campus, with 24 joining us after the business meeting
We will be deciding date and location of next KY Meeting by end of October and send out "SAVE THE DATE"
1 CommentComment on Facebook
It was great to see so many new and old faces!
We Have 12 Seats Open at ANNUAL KY TACF MEETING on EKU Campus Saturday August 24th
All of our KY Members have been offered seats at our ANNUAL MEETING. We still have 12 seats available. There is no charge to attend. Sandwich Lunch is provided at no cost.
Reservations required to attend for you and a Plus One guest, if you wish.
We have several presentations by TACF Leaders in the morning followed by an optional tour of the TACF / EKU Partnership Regional Hybrid Chestnut Orchard on the south side of Campus after lunch.
If you are interested in seeing detailed AGENDA and attending, please email to: Ken Darnell, KY Chapter President dkdarnell@roadrunner.com
Kentucky Division of Forestry Jennifer Koslow @The American Chestnut Foundation
2 CommentsComment on Facebook
Hi Joe. I just sent an email confirming a seat for you at our ANNUAL MEETING. We have an exciting Agenda, led by key TACF Leaders coming to visit with us. dkdarnell@roadrunner.com Will see you Saturday August 24th **** Ken
I plan on attending. How do I make a reservation? TU
KY TACF and Partners at Army Corps of Engineers Green River Lake, KY
The Army Corps of Engineers has been a long time Partner with Kentucky Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation at Green River Lake and at Carr Creek Lake.
KY Chapter President Ken Darnell met with ACE Lead Ranger Larry Lemmon and Keith Chasteen, retired from ACE and former KY Chapter Board Member near the Green River Lake Dam.
We checked on a nice hybrid American, approximately 94% American, 6% Chinese genes to try to breed in blight resistance, which is now fighting a blight attack. We also visited a 32 foot tall full American Chestnut planted February 2015 in our Partnership Germplasm Conservation Orchard. This tree is just now beginning to suffer at its base from blight, and should live another season or two. We will pollinate this tree to produce fertile nuts that can be planted to carry on its DNA in our KY Breeding Program.
Hannah Leeper TACF Harry Pelle Jennifer Koslow Clint Patterson
1 CommentComment on Facebook
Jennifer Koslow
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...