The VT-NH Chapter Annual Meeting took place on May 9, 2026 at Fox State Forest in Hillsborough, NH. The day opened with a welcome by outgoing president Gary Hawley, then a short history of Fox Forest by Inge Seaboyer with the NH Division of Forests and Lands. Michael Goergen, President and CEO of The American Chestnut Foundation spoke next, talking about the status and future of the organization.
Michael Goergen addresses the VT/NH chapter at the 2026 annual meeting.
Three science presentations followed: Dr. Peter Clark, a Research Associate faculty from the University of Vermont presented on the eight-year performance of American chestnut within climate adaptation experiments. (Slides can be found here). Following Dr. Clark, New England Regional Science Coordinator Deni Ranguelova share a guide to the TACF Recurrent Genomic Selection program (RGS). (Slides here). To wrap up the morning program, chapter president Gary Hawley spoke on chestnut restoration research, highlighting an experiment on chestnut restoration in different silvicultural conditions and forest types (slides here).
After lunch, attendees went on a rainy tour of the Tom Rush Forest chestnut plantings onsite.
The passing of the torch: Outgoing president Gary Hawley and incoming president Marla Binzel address the meeting attendees.
Meeting attendees brave the rain to check out the planted chestnuts at the Tom Rush Forest at Fox Forest.
