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Maine – About Us
The Maine chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) was established in 1999 to help restore the American chestnut tree to our corner of America here in Maine. We live at the northernmost end of its natural range where chestnuts, like Mainers, make due with less sunshine and more cold. These suboptimal conditions made for sparser populations of chestnuts (and people) than southern climes, even before the blight.
Maine is currently home to more mature, flowering wild American chestnuts than any other state. Their success is due primarily to Maine’s geographic isolation from the denser populations of chestnut trees south of us, where the fungus spreads more readily. We have the joyful job of finding Maine’s wild trees and harvesting their nuts!
By growing chestnuts from wild trees, the Maine Chapter is preserving genes that have helped the chestnut adapt to life at the cooler edge of its range. Ultimately our gene conservation and breeding efforts are intended to produce hearty, blight-resistant populations of American chestnuts that we can use for forest restoration.
The chapter’s goals are to: 1) Protect, conserve, preserve, and propagate trees from the remaining native American chestnut populations in Maine; 2) Restore the American chestnut to a place of ecological and economic importance and self-sustainability throughout their original range in Maine, and 3) Make blight-resistant American chestnuts available to the people of Maine as soon as possible.
With your help we intend to restore this iconic species to Maine’s landscape, its wildlife, and its people.
Chestnuts Across Maine
Chestnuts Across Maine (CAM) is an exciting, new initiative of the Maine chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF). Our chapter is partnering with land trusts, state parks, schools, and town squares in Maine to establish small plantings of American chestnuts on lands open to the public. During our pilot year in 2024, ME-TACF coordinated plantings with 8 organizations! Learn more about Chestnuts Across Maine.
Board of Directors
Key Contacts
Mark McCollough, Chapter President
Eva Butler, Chapter Vice President, Volunteer Coordinator (Email)
Al Faust, Treasurer
James Day, Secretary
Thomas Klak, Chair of Gene Conservation
Eric Evans, Breeding Coordinator
Ann Rea, Seed Sales
Board Members
David Allen, Portland
Peter Bohman, Monmouth
Eva Butler, St George
James Day, Portland
Eric Evans, Camden
Albert C. Faust, Winterport
Dr. Tom Klak, Saco
Mark McCollough, Hampden
Dr. Nina Pearlmutter, Kennebunkport
Andy Reed, Unity
Dr. Brian Roth, Orono
Larry Totten, West Bath
Roger Willby, Bridgeton
Maine Chapter Menu
National Facebook
TACF is hiring!
The New England Regional Science Coordinator (NERSC) supports the science-related activities of TACF's volunteer-run chapters in Maine, Vermont/New Hampshire, Massachusetts/Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
Interested candidates should apply via TACF’s employment page tacf.org/employment/. Application close date is 5:00PM EST on Friday, February 7, 2025.
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Join us for the next LIVE Chestnut Chat on Friday, January 17, 2025, at 11:30 AM (ET)! Participate in Q&A, breakout sessions, and help shape our restoration efforts.
Visit tacf.org/event/chestnut-chat-town-hall-peer-to-peer/ to learn more and pre-register.
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Happy New Year from the team at Meadowview Research Farms! Stay tuned for another year of projects and research, driven by a passion for the restoration of the American chestnut! We look forward to keeping you up to date on the new Meadowview greenhouse, Recurrent Genomic Selection project, Internship opportunities and more! Let's grow 2025!!!!
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I live in saltville Va and I have a wild chestnut tree I was wondering how I could find out what gender it is so I can plant a couple more around it if as long as I just plant a couple around it that would work and it will change gender to what is needed I would love to plant all kids of trees here on the farm to help out. Could someone please help me by telling me what trees would best help the wild life and bees to prosper.
Happy New Year
From the team at Meadowview Research Farms, we wish you a happy holidays!
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Latest News
Calling Volunteers to Chestnuts Across Maine
Chestnuts Across Maine (CAM) is an exciting, new initiative of the Maine chapter of TACF. Our chapter is partnering with land trusts, state parks, schools, and town squares in Maine to establish small plantings of American chestnuts on lands open to the public. This...
Chestnut Science Update
A Year of Change By Mark McCollough, Maine Chapter President “Learn to expect the unexpected.” As a wildlife biologist, I learned this tenet of ecology early in my career. Nature is full of surprises from the elegant workings of the DNA molecule to the intricate cogs...