The Race to Save the American Chestnut

Published January 11, 2023

 

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 though there’s not billions of trees, there are still a few million stump sprouts surviving out there. And that’s a good thing. That means there’s a lot of genetic material that we can make a population that could be restored,” Bill Powell, American Chestnut Research and Restoration, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

In partnership with SUNY-ESF, TACF has worked towards a genetically engineered, blight-tolerant American chestnut. 

“We’re in the process of losing all the trees that are in the genus of ash. We have to use all the tools we have to preserve as much biodiversity as we can and to keep our ecosystem functioning,” says Jason Smith, Director of Northern Manhattan Parks, New York Restoration Project.

*Source: The Washington Post

Sara Fitzsimmons in 2005 with Jim Gage, Dr Phil Arnold, Dr Robert Gregg

2005
Sara Fern Fitzsimmons with Jim Gage, Dr Phil Arnold, & Dr Robert Gregg

2006, Sara Fitzsimmons pollinates at Stockers

2006
Sara pollinating at Stockers, PA

Sara rating cankers at Thorpewood

Sara rating cankers at Thorpewood, MD

Sara at the 25th Annual TACF meeting

2008
Sara at the 25th Annual TACF Meeting

Sara and the Graves tree

2009
Sara in the PSU Graves Orchard

Sara Fern Fitzsimmons in the Glenn Swank stump, 2009

2009
Sara in the Glenn Swank stump, PA

Sara at the International Chestnut Symposium, 2012

2012
Sara at the International Chestnut Symposium

Sara in Vermont

2014
Sara with Harmony Dalgleish and the Berlin American chestnut in Vermont

Kendra and Sara in the field

Sara and Kendra Collins working in the field

Sara presenting at the 2022 TACF Spring Meeting

2022
Sara presenting at TACF’s Spring Meeting

Sara (in the rocker) with TACF staff at the Fall Meeting

2023
Sara (in the rocker) with TACF staff at the Fall Meeting

Sara Fern Fitzsimmons

2024
Sara in the Penn State greenhouses