Maine Chapter

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.

Board of Directors

Key Contacts

Mark McCollough, Chapter President

Thomas Klak, Vice President & Chair of Gene Conservation

Al Faust, Treasurer

Eric Evans, Breeding Coordinator

Eva Butler, Volunteer Coordinator

Ann Rea, Seed Sales

 

Board Members

David Allen, Portland
Peter Bohman, Monmouth
Eva Butler, St George
Eric Evans, Camden
Albert C. Faust, Winterport
Charles Hudson, Liberty
Dr. Tom Klak, Saco
Mark McCollough, Hampden
Dr. Nina Pearlmutter, Kennebunkport
Ann Rea, Bangor
Andy Reed, Unity
Dr. Brian Roth, Orono
Larry Totten, West Bath
Roger Willby, Bridgeton

Maine Chapter Menu

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A good day at Kentucky Division of Forestry Morgan County Tree Nursery. Collected 60 or so fertile burs (and left many small, infertile burs on the tree … there just were not enough catkins on the other trees to get a “full dose” of pollen to the available female flowers). Next is sorting down the best 50 to ship to Virginia Tech for a research project.

From The American Chestnut Foundation - Kentucky Chapter President Ken Darnell:

“I collected ‘open pollinated’ burs today. Left the bagged (Control Pollinated) burs to further ripen. Will come back in a couple of weeks to check them again. The Americans in Morgan County Nursery definitely mature later than all other flowers and burrs that I have seen around the state…..

Used my folding ladder to get up to the burs to “close clip” off their base stems … rather than using an extension pole to clip off several inches of twigs. That should help next season with more bur production.”
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A good day at Kentucky Division of Forestry Morgan County Tree Nursery. Collected 60 or so fertile burs (and left many small, infertile burs on the tree … there just were not enough catkins on the other trees to get a “full dose” of pollen to the available female flowers). Next is sorting down the best 50 to ship to Virginia Tech for a research project.

From The American Chestnut Foundation - Kentucky Chapter President Ken Darnell:

“I collected ‘open pollinated’ burs today. Left the bagged (Control Pollinated) burs to further ripen. Will come back in a couple of weeks to check them again. The Americans in Morgan County Nursery definitely mature later than all other flowers and burrs that I have seen around the state…..

Used my folding ladder to get up to the burs to “close clip” off their base stems … rather than using an extension pole to clip off several inches of twigs. That should help next season with more bur production.”Image attachmentImage attachment+2Image attachment

11 CommentsComment on Facebook

I would like to acquire a few to see if they will grow in zone 6

How do I grow chestnut trees from my existing tree

Are these “open pollinated” plants with hybrids or are they pollinating pure C. dentata? What are the controlled populations being bagged for specifically?

Nice job! The only thing I see in New York are Chinese  chestnut trees. 

Does Missouri have a chestnut association

I see these on the ground around my property in Fairview North Carolina, 2300 feet elevation blue ridge mountains. They are chestnuts? Chinese or American?

I thought you needed to wait for the burr to fall. Can you harvest right off the tree - how do you know when to do that?

Have a good crop of chestnut still on the trees. What do I do to plantings to get more trees?

How I can harvest my chesnuts? This year I lost 99% of my chesnut production to squirrels depredation.

Karen Cox Gullett, Sue Rupard, EddyPatsy Roberts

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And harvesting continues! This report from the TACF The Georgia Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation has a great description of the process, what happens after the nuts are picked and processed and also how we work with so many partners like Berry College who helps process the harvested nuts. Also pictured is Kathy Patrick, the volunteer of the year for the entire southern region of TACF. Thank you, Kathy, for your dedication and hard work. We will see you at the Fall Meeting! Note: some of these nuts were harvested at Anna Ruby Falls by staff Member Matt Summers! ... See MoreSee Less

And harvesting continues! This report from the TACF The Georgia Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation has a great description of the process, what happens after the nuts are picked and processed and also how we work with so many partners like Berry College who helps process the harvested nuts.  Also pictured is Kathy Patrick, the volunteer of the year for the entire southern region of TACF. Thank you, Kathy, for your dedication and hard work. We will see you at the Fall Meeting! Note: some of these nuts were harvested at Anna Ruby Falls by staff Member Matt Summers!Image attachmentImage attachment+3Image attachment

14 CommentsComment on Facebook

Do you ship seeds

This is amazing!

Hope to see more saplings at Shieling State Forest soon. I walk thru every weekend.

Is there any way to get some seedlings

Let us hope this is exceptional news, I wish we could grow chestnuts here in Kansas zone 6.

I'd love to have an American Chestnut tree in my field.

Where will they be planted?

Newbee here, why does the tree bark look so narly?

How can someone purchase seedlings

They’re fallin in Southern Ohio!

Do you ship seeds or saplings? If so will they grow in northern Michigan

Chinese chestnut trees are for sale at Walmart .. I prefer American. Where can I find them… Ohio

I remember my college days at SFA in Nacogdoches Texas 1st year dendrology . On our lab one week we were sampling trees in a neighborhood close to campus instead out in the woods. We came up on a so called (ringer) or a tree not included in our textbook. Because I had spent a lot of time in North Carolina I recognized right off as an American chestnut and got to go home early. Now how it got there nobody knows but it’s still there torturing new dendrology students today under the watchful eye of the forestry department at SFA,

They are selling saplings at fryberg fair for $20 each.

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Carolinas Chapter member Jon Taylor recently spent 10 days collecting chestnut burs from 18 wild trees spanning Alabama to Connecticut. This was his third annual chestnut harvest, and the nuts he collected will get planted in several different germplasm conservation orchards. The goal is that some of these will eventually become mother trees and receive transgenic pollen.

1st photo: An American chestnut tree on the Appalachian Trail in central Pennsylvania

2nd photo: Jon Taylor with newly discovered American chestnut tree in Connecticut
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Carolinas Chapter member Jon Taylor recently spent 10 days collecting chestnut burs from 18 wild trees spanning Alabama to Connecticut. This was his third annual chestnut harvest, and the nuts he collected will get planted in several different germplasm conservation orchards. The goal is that some of these will eventually become mother trees and receive transgenic pollen.

1st photo: An American chestnut tree on the Appalachian Trail in central Pennsylvania

2nd photo: Jon Taylor with newly discovered American chestnut tree in ConnecticutImage attachmentImage attachment

31 CommentsComment on Facebook

I am curious how to order seedlings? We've got acreage in Western NC mountains and we'd love to plant lots of these.

Such important work. ❤️❤️❤️

Thank for your efforts Jon!

Way cool!

I would love to get some blight resistant trees so I could spread the chestnut 🌰 tree love 🌳

Found some chestnuts while hiking in the Smokies this week.

My mom has a sizable one in her yard in Brevard, NC with no signs of blight. It has seeds every year.

I have lots of chestnut trees on my farm in WV. How do I know if they are American chestnuts or not?

Wonderful!

I truly hope that this effort is successful. It would be a great thing to see the chestnut become a major tree once again across the Eastern to Central US.

Good !

Nice finds! Here is the one I found on my farm. Western PA It's around 50 feet tall.

Awesome!

I had a chestnut 🌰 tree that got to be 40 inches round and plenty of chestnuts but one year it got dark and looked like it caught the blight. It was a shock to me because my papa had planted it from a seed. I have 2 more That look like bushes. But I’m afraid they also are prone to catching the blight.

A question for the experts…would it be possible to grow a tree in zone 5b Chicago? Congratulations on this wonderful mission.

The tree on #1 looks more like a shagbark hickory than a chestnut. I have both growing on my property.

I really need some seedlings!!!

Looks like my chestnut tree

These are blight resistant?

I love you’re using biotechnology to solve this problem. I wonder if you partner with the biotech industry you could move quicker and more efficient.

I love anyone on a mission, but I especially love THIS mission. Thank you.

Is there a report of any in Red Creek, NY?

They must have been something to behold.in Pre Columbus . America

There is a grove in Orleans, MA.

I know where some of these are in Middelsboro Kentucky where I grew up

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