President’s Message
Hopefully, sometime in 2023, our truly blight-tolerant (i.e. resistant) American chestnut trees will be approved for distribution (pending decisions by federal regulators). At that time, we will have permission to distribute seedlings, pollen, or scions for grafting.
Many of our members have “mother” trees, which are flowering and ready to produce blight-tolerant offspring. All that is needed is the blight-tolerant material to cross with their mother trees. Anyone who does not have a mother tree and is interested in receiving one can contact me. I will do my best to supply you with nuts for planting.
As soon as blight-tolerant trees or pollen have approval for distribution, we would like them to be crossed with a variety of wild-type trees. It will increase the genetic diversity of the trees we restore to the forest. Your mother trees will help us achieve this goal. We are also looking for wild American chestnut trees to incorporate into our New York breeding program. If you know of one, please contact us. Additionally, you can input data for the tree in an app called TreeSnap.
I would like to acknowledge and thank the families of former NY-TACF members who have passed on and did not get to see “a truly blight-resistant American chestnut”. Their loyalty and support have helped make this dream come true for both us and our descendants.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has helped get us to our current milestone: all the past and present staff at SUNY ESF, the New York State members of TACF who have planted trees and collected nuts, and everyone who has contributed to the SUNY ESF American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project. They are all to be commended.
The next several years will be a great adventure once we have government approval to distribute blight-tolerant material. People will be able to plant blight-tolerant seedlings in their mother tree orchards, which hopefully will cross-pollinate and produce blight-tolerant nuts. But we will also be able to distribute blight-tolerant pollen to people who already have flowering trees. By hand-pollinating, people may be able to produce blight-tolerant nuts by the fall of 2023; if we get government approval soon enough to hand pollinate.
There is still a great deal of work to be done but I have great confidence that we have the expertise and dedication to achieve our ultimate goal: The reintroduction of a blight-tolerant American chestnut tree back into the forest.
Allen Nichols
President NY-TACF
NYChapter@acf.org
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Special event alert! A lunch & learn and film screening of CLEAR DAY THUNDER will be taking place at the Cradle of Forestry on Saturday, May 4th, 12pm - 3:30pm. More details coming, but pencil this event on your calendar. Don’t miss this educational opportunity to learn more about The American Chestnut Foundation and restoring the American chestnut to its native range.
And while you're visiting the Cradle of Forestry, check out the display of the actual American chestnut tree wood that was shipped to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the Paris World's Fair in 1889 where the Eiffel Tower debuted.
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CLEAR DAY THUNDER: Rescuing the American Chestnut has been accepted as an Official Selection of the Tenth Annual Northern Virginia International Film & Music Festival. Submissions from around the world, including Libya, Korea, Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and of course, the United States are all part of this festival.
To read more about the festival, visit www.novafilmfest.com/
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Congratulations - we were honored to show your film at ACFF 2024.
Georgia Friends! Trees Atlanta and GA-TACF are looking for volunteers for a workday at the Langhorn Chestnut Orchard in Atlanta on April 27th, 2024.
Trees Atlanta will again be conducting a workday on their Langhorn Chestnut Orchard as part of their 2024 4-0-Forest celebration. Activities include hand-pulling and cutting invasive plants such as English ivy, Chinese privet, and kudzu in a densely wooded area off trail. Physical activity such as bending, pulling, lifting, and kneeling is required. Forest restoration can be physically strenuous - be ready to break a sweat and get dirty and learn a lot while doing it!
This event takes place 9:00am - 12:00pm. Visit the link for more information. www.treesatlanta.org/get-involved/events/conserve-the-4-0-forest-forest-restoration-in-langhorn-c...
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Ohio friends: celebrate the American chestnut on Tuesday, April 23 at the John Bartram Arboretum at Kendal at Oberlin.
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Zoom meeting plans?
Pets of The American Chestnut Foundation: Episode 3
Charlie Renfield Sparkle, aka Charlie Chestnut or “Chichi,” is a certified HLI (Horrible Little Idiot) with over 6 months experience of bringing joy and chaos to the home of TACF’s Northern Regional Outreach Coordinator, Catherine Martini. He was brought home last fall along with the chestnut harvest and has been trying to bury himself in the forest ever since. Charlie is not a wild-type American chihuahua and hasn’t been genotyped yet, but phenotypically we believe he is a Pug-Chihuahua hybrid.
When not digging up various disgusting things in the yard, Charlie is most frequently attacking his siblings or snoring on Catherine’s lap while she checks her emails.
Matilda is the soul-dog and familiar of Catherine. She is a fearsome and powerful wrestler who only plays “Matilda wins.” Her favorite activities include sunning herself, going for long walks in the wilderness, protecting every baby (no matter what species – most recently, bunnies), and giving an amount of kisses way above the recommended daily allowance. Matilda prides herself on her ability to make anyone, even her dog siblings, give up their spot on the couch for her. And let’s face it, she really deserves that spot more than any of us do.
Moreau “Goose” Martini-Riley is a 5-year-old boxer dog who got the nickname of “Goose” because he is so silly. Goose is here for two reasons: to play, and to eat butter – and he’s not allowed to eat butter.
Goose only has one brain cell, which is heart-shaped, so he’s perfectly suited to his job of being the charismatic goof-ball who loves everyone. He enjoys making everyone he meets feel like the most important person in the world and will sneak in a sloppy kiss or two if you let him. Goose loves to help in the garden, mostly by digging holes, but he also loves to hurt in the garden, mostly by digging holes. Goose was born deaf, but he doesn’t know it – he knows sign commands and enjoys sleeping through his siblings’ barking parties.
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