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
JOIN THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT FOUNDATION KENTUCKY CHAPTER TO MEET REALLY COOL PEOPLE
TACF's Winter edition of CHESTNUT / The Journal of the American Chestnut Foundation had an awesome two page article written on Dr. Bill Rittenour, with a BS degree in Forestry, Masters in Engineered Fungi, and PhD in Plant Pathology.
His career path ultimately took him to his two true loves: American Chestnuts and brewing craft beers in Morgantown, West Virginia.
His amazing story is attached in photos.
KY Chapter President Ken Darnell and wife Patti were fascinated with Dr. Rittenour's story when they saw the article, and just happened to already have a trip planned to Morgantown, for family events. We prioritized our first step to Dr. Rittenour's CHESTNUT BEER HALL. A totally enjoyable event. We recommend his BEER HALL and restaurant, and wormy Chestnut crafted wood for anyone going into that area.
JOIN US as a KY Chapter Member to receive the CHESTNUT JOURNAL and to learn about other active "Chestnutters" MEMBERSHIP:
support.tacf.org/membership
Choose the Kentucky Chapter
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Mark Double
Patti Darnell
The 2025 Kentucky Chestnut Season Begins !!!
Wednesday February 12, 2025:
We potted 77 full American nuts to produce seedlings to add to our Breeding Program.
Partnership of KY TACF and Eastern Kentucky University continues to produce results. In addition to the EKU Hybrid Regional Seed Orchard, EKU also lends green house space to pot chestnuts that will produce seedlings to be planted in May, after frost season.
Dr. Jennifer Koslow, EKU Biology Professor, is also KY Board Member and KY Chapter Vice President. Tandy Deskins, EKU Facilities Front Office and Co-Orchard Manager, keeps the hybrid orchard mowed, and pulls in other EKU Grounds resources for bush hogging and fence line spraying. Ken Darnell, KY Chapter President, appreciates EKU's hands on actions and their multiple resources.
Keep FOLLOWING for multiple action and volunteering opportunities * * * * * *
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Great Pictures. Really appreciate all you are doing.
Thank You To The Leaders of Berea College Forest---Partners with The Kentucky Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation
Excellent in depth article in Winter 2024 edition of KEENELAND magazine, authored by Jacalyn Carfagno, Photos by Kirk Schlea
Silas Mason came to work at Berea College in 1897, after turning down a job as second in command of the new U.S. Department of Forestry. He saw "mostly abandoned and eroded hill farms with little or no large tree cover".
Silas Mason quickly began acquiring land and, with the help of a Boston benefactor, had assembled almost 7,000 acres in a few year. The Berea College Forest has now grown to around 9,000 acres, with 17 miles of hiking trails, with 9 new miles being developed.
Current Head Forester, Clint Patterson, who is also a Board Member of the Kentucky Chapter. Clint and his Team work to nurture many of the wild American Chestnuts still growing on the ridges of the forest. We appreciate their active Partnership actions. John Abrams is a naturalist who works with Forestry Team.
There is so much more to share about the amazing Team at Berea College Forest.
forestryoutreach.berea.edu/services/the-forest/
We encourage you to visit their wonderful Forestry Outreach Center:
www.berea.edu/centers/the-forestry-outreach-center
Full article, Keeneland Magazine Pg. 82-94
issuu.com/keeneland/docs/keeneland_magazine_-_winter_2024_edition
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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...