President’s Corner
This will be my last message to you, as I have recently been given the gift of a grandson in NYC and have found a wonderful place to live in Emmaus, PA on a mountain overlooking a conserved valley of agricultural land. I’ll have a chance to see my wife routinely again (who is over the moon about this kid, I’m clearly #2 now) and my Grandson on a regular basis. Gary Hawley, who has served as Vice President over my years as President will be serving out the remaining year of my term. And I can’t think of a better way to go – assured the Chapter will be in the competent hands of someone who is far more knowledgeable about Chestnut and Forestry than I am. And who has been a member longer than I’ve resided in Vermont. My special thanks go to Gary for this next year, or longer if he so chooses.
It has been an interesting year, confused by the sudden change in position on the Darling transgenic line which once looked so promising. Complicated by the fact that so many folks, including the most senior employee at TACF, have left. But a productive one for sure. We made pollinations of American trees x American trees from our region, assuring some new genetic combinations in our thriving Germplasm Conservation Orchards (GCO). As bad as the harvest was in 2023 due to late spring frost, the 2024 harvest was amazing. Turbocharged by a lift rented for a week in the fall of last year, we harvested burs and shucked more than 10,000 nuts. A substantial number (40 lbs worth!) were sent to TACF-National to supplement the sale of bare- root seedlings to members. Many will be distributed to VT/NH Chapter members during this season’s free-nut distribution.
Some cliches come to mind – “Back to the Future” describes TACF’s new focus on “Best x Best” Breeding, now known as RGS – Recurring Genomic Selection. Supplemented by genomics testing results and lots of phenotypic observations of trees bred during the last 40 years, there is now a focus on using just the “Best” trees. Those which display enhanced blight resistance and American form, from across state lines where necessary. Chapters will now work together with common material from regions, not just within Chapter Orchards.
“The more things change, the more they remain the same” is another. It best describes our core competencies and Chapter efforts – Outreach via schools, Farm and Forest Shows with booth education, and a renewed social media effort, now with a paid contractor helping. Also, pollinations of American and Hybrid trees and plantings of unique genetic American material to plant in our GCO’s; and harvest of nuts for free distributions and to assist national.
“Hope Springs Eternal” is a third. At the University of New England “speed breeding” has been developed and refined by Dr. Tom Klak. Regardless of whether restoration material eventually comes from Breeding or Biotechnology (e.g. Transgenics), the fact that a “generation” of outdoor work requires seven or eight years to reach reproductive maturity. Speed breeding reduces this time to a year or two. It is an indoor technique. If branch inoculation results are proven as reliable as stem inoculation results, blight resistance of crosses can be observed within that same time period, without losing the tree. And thousands of pollen doses can be harvested from the male catkins and frozen for use with flowering wild American trees.
At this year’s May 17 Annual Meeting in Randolph, VT, we will spend time understanding where Recurring Genomic Selection Breeding will take us. What is it, specifically and scientifically? How will it affect our need for field events and volunteers, and where? What does it mean for orchards full of hybrid trees which we’ve tended for years which aren’t the “Best” of Breeding results? We will also try to answer the commonly asked question “Are we still focused on 3-Bur (Biocontrol, Backcross Breeding and Biotechnology)? Breeding is changing and focusing on RGS. Where is Biotechnology going absent the transgenic Darling line to work with? Biocontrol slogs along but has never shown much promise. And we will try to present the “lay of the land” organizationally after a tumultuous year of staff turnover at National. There are still very good people working there.
And there are very good people working within our chapter – all of you. We hope you’ll join us at the Annual Meeting for some science, but also for some socialization with like-minded conservationists and environmentalists. We are all volunteers.
Evan Fox,
VT/NH Chapter President
Hope you can attend the VT/NH Chapter Annual Meeting
Agenda
Annual Meeting – May 17, 2025
8:00am to Finish (Not later than 1:00pm)
Chandler Center For the Arts
71 N. Main Street
Randolph, VT. 05060
8:00am – 8:30am Check in, Grab Coffee or Tea and Pastry, Say Hello & Grab a Seat!
8:30am – 9:30am Business Meeting (Official Board Meeting)
By-Law Revisions TB Ratified by Membership
Changes to Wording and Readability
Change in Officer Elections – Board Governance
Change in Timing of Budget Submission
Nominations and Elections
Directors to be Ratified by Membership
Officers
2025 Budget Review (Informational for Membership)
9:30am – 10:00am Changes at TACF!
Organizational Changes – Who’s Who?
Personnel – Org Chart!
Regional Science Committee – Inter Chapter Now
Recurring Genomic Selection – Re-focused Breeding
Transgenics and all ESF Work Abandoned
10:00am – 10:45am Recurring Genomic Selection (RGS)
What is it? Best by Best?
How is TACF using it to move breeding forward?
2025 Field Efforts Already Planned using RGS
RGS Plantings in Rutland GCO
9 Seedlings (Part of 14 Supplied by TACF)– Where to?
10:45am – 11:15am What is the Status of the Biotechnology “Bur”?
In the Absence of Transgenics, What’s Left?
11:15am – Noon Outreach Committee Highlights
Events already done in 2025
Upcoming Events – How can I get Involved?
Field Events Planned for 2025
Social Media
Welcome to New England Regional Science Coordinator
The VT/NH Chapter welcomes Deni Ranguelova who has replaced Kendra Collins as New England Regional Science Coordinator. We truly miss Kendra who accomplished so much for the New England Chapters and chestnut restoration. Following is Deni’s own introduction. Looks like we will be in good hands!
“My name is Deni Ranguelova, and I want to properly introduce myself as your new New England Regional Science Coordinator. Although I’m new to this position, I have been involved with TACF since 2019, when I worked under Kendra as her summer intern. The following year, I graduated from UVM with a B.S. in Forestry and returned for two more field seasons with TACF as an intern and then as a field technician. I’m sure I have already crossed paths with many of you, and I am really looking forward to reconnecting with you and meeting the new faces this summer.
After my third summer with TACF, I worked at the US Fish & Wildlife Service, USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service, completed a short fellowship with NASA, and worked in ecological restoration before going back to school for my master’s degree. I am now finishing up my M.S. in Geography, and I’m excited to bring some of that experience into this role.
I especially look forward to seeing many of you at the annual meeting this month on the 17th. I’m excited to hear about what your chapter has been up to over the last few years, and what you’d like to focus on in the upcoming field season. I know Kendra was absolutely instrumental in her role. She has been someone I’ve looked up to for years, which makes stepping into this role especially meaningful. I recognize there will be a learning curve, but I’m committed to doing my best to support you, learn from your experiences, and offer guidance wherever I can.”
I look forward to working with you!
Warmly,
Deni Ranguelova
Orchard Committee
In spring 2024 Evan Fox introduced a new structure to the VT/NH Orchard management by combining the Breeding and Biotechnology Committees into one Orchard Committee.
Since then, there has been substantial planning, purchasing of materials, and design efforts put towards the spring 2025 planting of Recurrent Genomic Selection (RGS), formally known as Best X Best American chestnut crosses. Working with TACF guidance to select the best RGS plant material, the Committee has also worked with US Forest Service and University of Vermont personnel to acquire nuts from each of the RGS sources along with nuts from Chinese trees and chinkapin. The VT/NH Chapter has RGS sources from Vermont, Maine, Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee.
Anticipated Orchard Committee activities during 2025
o The Committee has 25 or more nuts from each of the 23 sources that will be planted as nuts in mid to late May of 2025.
o They will be planted within the fenced area at the Goshen, Vermont research site that was used previously as the site of a silviculture and provenance research study conducted by UVM, TACF and US Forest Service.
o Additional work has been planned to plant more American chestnut within the larger silvicultural study that already contains 15-year-old American chestnuts from 13 sources. This work will be accompanied by thinning around existing material and the evaluation of performance of American chestnut provenance sources.
o The Windsor Grasslands Germplasm Conservation Orchard will be expanded to include an additional 30 trees on one quarter acre while routine maintenance will be done on the already-planted three-quarter acre.
o An effort will be made to visit the Chapter’s nine breeding orchards and three seed orchards during summer to better understand the level of maintenance that is required to bring all orchards into optimal growing conditions and to review long-term agreements with landowners of Breeding orchard material to anticipate and correct any issues.
Restoration Committee
Soon to be VT/NH Chapter Board member, Dr. Marla Binzel, serves on the TACF Restoration Committee. It is working to determine forest conditions that will be suitable for supporting the reintroduction of blight resistant American chestnuts. Marla is currently formulating the VT/NH Chapter’s reintroduction plans to align with the new strategic plans of National’s Restoration Committee and is beginning to identify sites for forest plantings of wild type American chestnuts in conjunction with other board members, for progeny tests of material coming out of TACF’s Recurrent Genomic Selection (RSC) breeding program.
The Committee is working to communicate the realm of incremental blight resistance and the strengths of the new RSC breeding program and the reality that any transgenic chestnuts that would be planted in unregulated sites will be at least 20 years in the future. It also provided input for TACF’s next strategic plan. In this regard it was the conclusion of the Restoration Committee that even trees with low blight resistance can serve an ecological function. Such plantings will allow for additional silviculture knowledge to be acquired, and that sufficient resistance exists to warrant planting the available germplasm into forest plantings. There was a strong consensus that future efforts, communications, etc. need to emphasize incremental increases in resistance, rather than an all or nothing approach.
The plan developed by the Restoration Committee focuses on:
● Making available an increasing annual seed production for reintroduction efforts.
● Developing region-specific reintroduction plans within two years.
● Fostering research partnerships to enhance restoration methodologies.
● Establishing breeding populations with disease resistance and competitive growth traits.
● Identifying and managing high-potential reintroduction sites.
Reintroduction Strategy
Reintroduction will involve centralized and decentralized efforts:
● Large-scale trials at key locations to study genetic adaptation.
● Small-scale plantings to refine site selection and management techniques.
● Diverse planting approaches to accommodate varying environmental conditions and future challenges.
TACF staff have recently been notified that their submission of results of their recurrent genomic selection (RGS) work to a very prestigious peer reviewed multi-disciplinary scientific journal has been accepted for publication. The manuscript is currently being edited to incorporate suggestions from reviewers. When published, this article should generate considerable positive publicity for this project. It is the type of journal that typically elicits secondary news articles in the popular press. Hopefully this will also help generate enthusiasm in the chapters for the RGS strategy and impress upon people that it is not grounded in the old breeding program that produced limited blight resistance.
Outreach
On April 22, 2025, Earth Day, Board members Curt Laffin and Dr. Marla Binzel, and New London Conservation Commission Chair Bob Brown teamed up to give a chestnut restoration presentation to the Grantham, NH Conservation Commission (CC). The New London CC has been planting and caring for American chestnut trees for more than 10 years. Grantham’s CC is also considering planting chestnut trees and requested the presentation to become familiar with the process. Twenty-eight interested people attended.
The Outreach Committee is focused on setting up booths at VT and NH public events during 2025. We are grateful to NH members who have volunteered to man our booth at the NH Farm, Forest and Garden EXPO on May 2-3 at the Deerfield, NH Fairgrounds. Committee member, Will Abbott, is organizing these events. Board member, Tom Estill will have a booth at the VT State Fair in Rutland, VT, August 12-26. Volunteers are needed to man our booth at this event. Will Abbott participated in a seed planting effort to grow seedlings that will be handed out to children at event booths.
Audrey Kissin has been hired on a temporary basis to update and managed the Chapter website and social media outlets. We look forward to working with Audrey as she improves our effectiveness toward reaching audiences that use these tools.
Free Nut Offer
Nuts for this year’s distribution were harvested and shucked in late September and early October of 2024. They came from trees in Plainfield, Vermont owned by Caitlyn Roseen (900 Gonyeau Rd), Lyndonville, Vermont owned by John Holland, and Whitingham, Vermont owned by Ed Metcalf. Forty people requested nuts after notices were sent out via Constant Contact. Packages of eight nuts and pots with planting instruction were mailed on April 18 & 20, 2025.
