Volunteers Power Our Mission
Many hands make light work! TACF volunteers are interesting, inspired folks you get to know as you work, learn, and grow trees together! If you crave connection and want to create positive change, Maine TACF is a great place to give and to get both.
We believe that we can recreate the forest community and revitalize our human community at the same time. We’re doing it day by day. Won’t you join us?
With your help we can accomplish these tasks and more this year:
Chestnut Restoration — Join or start a Chestnut Restoration Team near you. Plant, tend and share chestnut trees and their story with others. Chestnuts-Across-Maine partners with local land trusts, parks, schools and towns to connect people and chestnuts.
Potting seeds — In February we gather at a member’s greenhouse to pot up the nuts that will become the seedlings of 2025.
Inoculating — In June we will inject live blight fungus into the bark of about 3000 trees in our seed orchards in Searsport, Phippsburg, Stetson, Hartland, and Winthrop, to see if the trees show any sign of blight resistance.
Evaluating — Trees inoculated in June of 2024 will be evaluated by TACF scientists to see how well they fared against the fungus.
Roguing — From May through October any trees that succumbed to the blight will be cut down and removed from the seed orchards, leaving more room for the other trees.
Pollinating — In July or August, volunteers will transfer pollen collected from our more promising trees to the blooming flowers of other high performing chestnuts.
Harvesting — In the fall we’ll gather nuts from pure American chestnuts and any hand pollinated “best by best” crosses. The narrow harvest window is usually September 25 through October 10.
Husking— A couple weeks after harvest, it’s all hands on husks to open the spiny burs (with tough gloves) to reveal 2-3 delicious, sweet nuts tucked inside. Hot cider, roasting chestnuts and lively conversation remind us why volunteering is so rewarding.
Learn more about Volunteering
Time is our most precious resource to give. At TACF we treat your time like a valuable gift to the future. Opportunities abound for volunteers, even those who don’t love field work. Take this easy first step: Sign up to volunteer. Our volunteer coordinator will contact you to help you find a good fit for your skills and interests.
Maine Chapter Menu
National Facebook
Just a few years apart: the same wild American chestnut tree before and after chestnut blight took its toll.
Enter our 2026 Photo Contest from now until the end of December!
#americanchestnut #chestnutblight #ForestEcology #nativespecies #ForestConservation
2 CommentsComment on Facebook
American chestnuts produce separate male flowers and bisexual flowers on the same tree?! What a fascinating reproductive strategy for a species once dominant across eastern forests. 🌿
#americanchestnut #treefacts #treeidentification #ForestEcology #SaveOurForests
4 CommentsComment on Facebook
I have had these on the farm for years
BeeKeeper Mango
From looking at the leaves that is NOT an American chestnut. The leaves do not have the good fishhook profile on the edges, and from what can see they look like Japanese chestnut leaves which have small feathery edges.
Small Stem Assays involve inoculating young chestnut stems with the blight fungus and monitoring the resulting cankers, allowing researchers to assess how well different trees respond to infection.
#educational #Informative #americanchestnut #fieldwork #explore
2 CommentsComment on Facebook
You don't find out if the tree is resistant until it matures. That could be a decade later.
I am always amazed how big you all can grow them in 1 year. That is how big my second year seed8 gs always are!
Last week, staff at TACF’s national office in Asheville joined Carolinas Chapter President Peggy McDonald, husband Bob, and Chapter board member Jon Taylor for a hike at Albert Mountain in Western NC to visit wild American chestnut trees in search of flowering catkins.
During their venture, the team also came across a few cool amphibians: a red-legged salamander, which only inhabits portions of the southern Appalachian Mountains, and a red-spotted newt, which is much more common, but its brilliant red is stunning!
Of course, the biggest thrill was seeing large surviving chestnut trees and, as the day wrapped up, collecting some beautiful catkins that were high in the canopy of a tree on the way down the mountain. Pollen collected from the catkins will be used in TACF’s southern region breeding program.
#hike #nature #getoutside #americanchestnut #pollination
6 CommentsComment on Facebook
Whoa. Fascinating that some mature American Chestnuts have survived the blight. Taking pollen from these survivors is such a great idea. I didn't realize there were any survivors in NC.
Ils sont en fleur au Québec aussi, ça fait du bien de les voir grandir.
Fantastic