On May 18 the VT/NH Chapter took another step in its strategy to build a team of trained pollinators who will be ready to act following deregulation of the Darling-58 transgenic American chestnut tree. The Beaver Brook Association (BBA) in Hollis, NH hosted a combined Orchard Data Collection and Pollination Training workshop.
New England Regional Science Coordinator, Kendra Colins and UVM student intern, Russel Gomory, first instructed the 19 volunteers who attended how to collect data for each tree in the orchard. The orchard at BBA is a Progeny Test Orchard containing a variety chestnut species and hybrids. Kendra is pictured below demonstrating how to identify and record signs of flowering. Other information recorded included tree height and stem diameter, condition of blight (if present) and tree health. The volunteers worked efficiently in teams of three and were able to assess the condition all 111 trees in the orchard.
Following data collection Kendra demonstrated the controlled pollination process. The group will meet again June to locate flowers and bag them in preparation for pollination in late June or early July.
When our founders and early volunteers started breeding blight-resistant American chestnuts decades ago, they knew restoration would take generations. Like the proverb says, true conservation is about planting for a future we may never see, but one that the younger generations will inherit. Today, we continue that legacy. Want to help us plant the forests of tomorrow?
A society grows even more greater when old men plant American Chestnut Trees specifically in whose shade they shall never sit.
I planted quite a few American Chestnut trees from chestnuts I got from our local chapter of the ACF headed up by Herb Darling.
All but 2 of them died. Mostly from the blight, but some because I planted them in soil that wasn’t drained enough.
The 2 that are still alive are on a hill next to Lake Ontario. They’re doing great- even seem to be crowding out the nearby maple trees.
Ill plant some,I have a few pieces of land in Western NC....just tell me where to buy them
Have a great photo of an American chestnut tree, bloom, bur, leaf, restoration planting, volunteer event, or wildlife interaction? We'd love to see it! (Photo pictured taken by 2025 2rd place winner Eric Sizemore)
First Place receives: - Their photo featured on the cover of a future issue of Chestnut magazine - A one-year TACF Seed Level Membership (a $300 value!) - TACF merchandise
Second and Third Place winners will receive: - TACF swag - Recognition alongside the first-place winner in the 2027 Spring/Summer issue of Chestnut.
A bee enjoying a well deserved break after the chestnut pollination period. The tree it rests on is a hybrid castanea pumila x alabamensis (dwarf chestnut x Alabama chinquapin). ... See MoreSee Less
In a recent article for The Conversation, Dr. Steve Strauss discusses how advances in genomics and biotechnology are creating new opportunities to support chestnut restoration.
We're pleased to see perspectives from a longtime TACF collaborator. Steve served on our Science Advisory Review Committee in 2018 and currently has a pending proposal with TACF to improve genetic transformation methods for chestnut.
Somewhere, waiting discovery deep inside the remote part of a forest towers a thriving blight resistant nut filled American Chestnut (surrounded by dead ones just so we know it was exposed and surviving). We can hope. Taking inspiration from the Dogwood saga.
Professors at S.U.N.Y E.S.F put a wheat gene in to Chestnuts years ago and have growing them
I thought the blight only killed the tree above the ground and not the root system that's why the chestnut resprouts and grows until it gets a scar on it and the blight kills the sprouted tree back down to the ground leaving more viable root system to sprout again in the future.