In The News

Scion wood collection for southern American chestnut conservation Featured Image

Scion wood collection for southern American chestnut conservation

You can help conserve the American chestnut by collecting scion wood The American Chestnut Foundation is seeking scion wood from wild American chestnut trees from the southern population. (Scion wood is the name for the twigs used in grafting and propagating woody plants.) Population studies have determined that trees found in Western TN and KY, GA, AL, and MS represent...
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WV Chapter President Mark Double Retires Featured Image

WV Chapter President Mark Double Retires

Over a brisk weekend in early October, during the Annual West Virginia Chestnut Festival in Rowlesburg Mark Double, WV-TACF Chapter President, retired from his duties. Chapter Board member Lewis A. Cook shared these kind words about his time with Mark. If we are fortunate,...
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Carolinas Chapter Holds Virtual Meeting Featured Image

Carolinas Chapter Holds Virtual Meeting

By Hannah Leeper, Southern Regional Outreach Coordinator   Thank you to President Doug Gillis and the other members and volunteers of TACF’s Carolinas Chapter who attended our virtual meeting on September 20, 2023!   This meeting, the first held since the COVID-19 pandemic, included a presentation by Regional Science Coordinator Jamie Van Clief about ongoing science strategies, a listing of current and upcoming volunteer...
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Words for Chestnut in Indigenous Languages Featured Image

Words for Chestnut in Indigenous Languages

Many Indigenous cultures share a long history with the American chestnut tree. The tree provided an important supply of food and, in turn, many Indigenous Peoples managed landscapes to improve habitat for chestnut trees.
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Kentucky Kicks Off TACF’s 40th Anniversary Chapter Celebrations Featured Image

Kentucky Kicks Off TACF’s 40th Anniversary Chapter Celebrations

On Saturday, August 26, the Kentucky Chapter held a special annual meeting in Berea. This year, in addition to the usual chapter business, a fun and informative 40th anniversary event took place, which included talks from TACF staff and KY Chapter members, a viewing of the documentary Clear Day Thunder: Rescuing the American Chestnut, a walk in the woods to view small American chestnut trees,...
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New Documentary Release Featured Image

New Documentary Release

The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) is excited to announce the release of CLEAR DAY THUNDER: Rescuing the American Chestnut, a documentary about the grassroots efforts of passionate citizen scientists and researchers working to restore this ecologically and economically significant tree species.
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Teaching Pollination Techniques to Enthusiastic Volunteers Featured Image

Teaching Pollination Techniques to Enthusiastic Volunteers

The Tennessee Chapter held a very successful one-day pollination workshop on Saturday, June 10, 2023, at the beautiful Chestnut Ridge Orchard in Middle Tennessee. The workshop was a hands-on opportunity to learn and practice techniques to make controlled crosses for TACF’s breeding program.
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Teamwork by Kentucky Chapter and its Partners Leads to Successful Pollinations Featured Image

Teamwork by Kentucky Chapter and its Partners Leads to Successful Pollinations

Kentucky Chapter partners and volunteers showed awesome teamwork in pollination efforts this year. Our American chestnut tree flowers matured over a wide range of dates in June 2023. This year we created a chart of “Prime Flower Maturity” dates of trees...
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Dr. William Pitt Named President & CEO of The American Chestnut Foundation Featured Image

Dr. William Pitt Named President & CEO of The American Chestnut Foundation

On April 27, 2023, The American Chestnut Foundation’s (TACF) Board of Directors announced that conservation leader Dr. William Pitt has been appointed President & CEO of TACF. Dr. Pitt will further the organization’s mission currently led by President & CEO Lisa Thomson. Ms Thomson announced in 2022 her wish to step...
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2023 American Chestnut Photo Contest Featured Image

2023 American Chestnut Photo Contest

It is time again to begin thinking about your best photos of American chestnut or American chestnut hybrids...
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Biotech Chestnut Tree to Restore Lost Ecosystems and Biodiversity With Your Help Featured Image

Biotech Chestnut Tree to Restore Lost Ecosystems and Biodiversity With Your Help

A recent article, published just before the holidays, shares the history of restoration efforts of the American chestnut tree. The article continues on to detail the current deregulation efforts towards the transgenic tree, Darling 58. "Over the last twenty years, efforts at the nexus of conservation and biotechnology have genetically engineered (GE) the American chestnut to resist the fungus. The goal is to...
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The Race to Save the American Chestnut Featured Image

The Race to Save the American Chestnut

  American Chestnuts once numbered in the billions and ranged along the East coast from Maine to Mississippi. But a blight in the early 1900s pushed them back to a fraction of their historic range. Today, the American Chestnut is considered “functionally extinct”, but efforts to restore them are making progress through genetic modification. "Fortunately for us, even...
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