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
Saturday June 28th VOLUNTEER WORK DAY at TACF / EKU Regional Chestnut Orchard
VOLUNTEER WORK DAY at TACF / EKU Orchard to cut out the many 1-2 year old stump sprouts that have grown from root systems of trees selected and cut out over the last two years.
We will start at 9:00 am ET. Will finish before 1:00 pm. Those who can join us, please RSVP: theamericanchestnutfoundation.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=90472
We need Chain Saw, and Weed Eater operators, as well as hand pruner / loppers operators. Also need people to drag cut trees to our brush piles. Also happy to see people who want to come out and “hug on” our ‘BETTER TREES’ that are now in their 9th growing season. 😊 Our goal is to have 10 Volunteers….but more is “AOK”
Also, please bring sun hats, tick spray, tools, drinks, snacks/lunch. Bring light rain gear, just in case ***
If you cannot make this Action Event, but would like to pre-register for future Volunteer Action Events, we invite you to sign our on line ‘INTERESTED KY VOLUNTEER FORM and WAIVER’ at: tacf.org/volunteer/
theamericanchestnutfoundation.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/?id=9047
Hannah Leeper TACF
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Are these hybrids or native Chestnut?
Catkins are in Prime Ripeness at TACF / EKU Regional Chestnut Seed Orchard, Richmond, KY
Photos by KY TACF Member and EKU Facilities Team, Tandy Deskins, Co-Orchard Manager, checked on our orchard Friday June 13, 2025, mowed between all trees and seedlings, and checked status of male catkins.
We have evaluated all 3650 trees planted in this orchard, and have cut out all but 350, or the "Better" 9.5%. We recently collected leaf samples from the surviving 350 for genomic testing, to further evaluate which trees have the best genes for some blight resistance. These trees are, on average, 94% American genes and 6% or so Chinese Chestnut genes, trying to maximize American characteristics with some Chinese Chestnut resistance inherited. We will continue to select and cut until we are down to our "BEST" 1-2%, which will then be pollinated with other "BEST" hybrids, to develop the next generation of hybrid American Chestnuts.
See: tacf.org/tree-breeding/
We invite you to JOIN US to get involved with the many ACTIONS underway to help the National Efforts to Restore the American Chestnut *** support.tacf.org/membership Select "Kentucky Chapter"
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I hope i get to plant at least 1 chestnut tree before I die. This is super exciting!
Keep up the good work!
Awesome!💯
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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