In The News
On August 24-25, 2021 ME-TACF Chapter Vice President Tom Klak, and VT/NH-TACF Chapter President Doug McLane, once again combined efforts to move American chestnut restoration forward. They checked the condition of hundreds of chestnut flowers at Cape Elizabeth, ME that they had pollinated earlier with transgenic pollen. This was one more...
This article in the Sun Journal revisits the 114-foot tall American chestnut tree in Hebron, Maine. The tree is considered to be the largest surviving American chestnut in the state of Maine, and one of the largest in the country. The reason for...
In July 2021, the CT-TACF Chapter held several Chestnut Hikes to search for new sources of American chestnut germplasm. The CT Department of Energy & Environmental Protection had previously performed habitat management harvests at many parcels of state-owned land to create early successional habitat for the New England Cottontail, a species that was proposed for listing on the Endangered Species List. Since these forest...
Throughout the summer, KY-TACF Chapter members and volunteers have searched for wild-type American chestnut trees in the Red River Gorge Geological Area of Daniel Boone National Forest, an area known to have a number of surviving American chestnuts. Volunteers seek to take record...
This August 2021 article published by the Town Topics Newspaper of Princeton, New Jersey, chronicles the history and re-emergence of American chestnut trees in various NJ townships, including a second generation hybrid sapling planted at Mapleton Preserve in Kingston. "There are over 100 chestnut trees now growing in the area, including trees planted in Hopewell Township at the Fiddler’s Creek Preserve, demonstration plantings at...
In the summer of 2021, Paul Kuehnel of York Daily News visited with TACF Director of Restoration, Sara Fitzsimmons, and Jay Breneman to capture a series of photos. The photos depict three tree species threatened by non-native pests and pathogens, American chestnut, ash, and hemlock....
In April of 2021, former TACF Regional Science Coordinator Paul Sisco and a volunteer crew participated in a workday at the backcross chestnut orchard located at Lioncrest, Biltmore Estate, Asheville, NC. The ground where the trees are planted is known to contain Phytophthora cinnamomi, a root rot pathogen lethal to American chestnuts trees. Volunteers mowed the grass in the orchard, fertilized the trees, and...
Once in a blue moon, I like to gift an extra seedling or two to special friends or major donors when there are extra available from TACF’s Meadowview Research Farms. A long-time friend and former colleague at The Nature Conservancy, Hallie, was the recipient of such a seedling to raise the spirits of her father, Jack, who had been dealing with health issues the...
In mid-May, TACF members and volunteers worked non-stop to create New England’s first transgenic chestnut seedling orchard in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Transgenic chestnuts have an extra gene from wheat to protect them from the fungal blight that kills the American chestnut. Because the transgenic chestnuts are federally regulated, the site is governed by a USDA APHIS outplanting permit. Creating the orchard was quite an...
Visitors and staff walk through a beautiful meadow-like area of native plants on their way into the Glenn C. Price Research Laboratory at TACF's Meadowview Research Farms. The garden was established as landscaping for the new lab in 2011. These native plants are an appropriate complement for the ongoing research to restore our native American chestnut. The garden provides wildlife habitat, is an education...
Before globalization and colonialism brought the invasive chestnut blight pathogen to American soils, for thousands of years, the Cherokee made a cough syrup from the leaves of the American chestnut tree. The Cherokee also took an infusion of year old chestnut for heart trouble. Today, the knowledge of this culturally significant tree is fading for two reasons: The Indian Removal...
Have you taken a photograph of an American chestnut or American chestnut hybrid that deserves to grace the cover of Chestnut magazine? Enter it in TACF’s 2021 American Chestnut Photo Contest! Send in your best photo(s) by September 1, 2021 to enter. The winner will receive a complimentary one-year TACF membership...