Dr. William “Bill” Powell, 67, died Sunday, Nov. 12 [2023], at his home with his family by his side. Powell was a biology professor at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where he and his colleague, Charles Maynard, founded...

The American chestnut tree once dominated the eastern part of the United States. After becoming functionally extinct starting over a century ago due to the spread of a fungus, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry is close to...

We’ve all had eureka moments, those flashes of insight that, for most of us anyway, add up to little more than remembering where we left our car keys. But William Powell isn’t like most people. His eureka moment might change the world. Up until last year, Powell was a...

"It is an exciting time in the field of conservation and biotechnology. For the first time, it appears likely that a tree that has been developed with genetic engineering (GE) could be approved by U.S. regulatory agencies for use in restoring a threatened species to...

  "At the turn of the [20th] century, ...the American chestnut was devastated by blight... The blight swept through the Appalachian forest at a rate of 50 miles a year, leaving the species as nothing more than an early-succession-stage shrub. Now, the American...

Researchers at SUNY ESF are growing American chestnut trees that can withstand blight. They are ready to release the trees into the wild, becoming the first in the United States to use genetic engineering to bring back a forest tree to its former glory. Read the full...