Walk in Penn’s Woods

Published November 18, 2019

Hikers looking up at the tall trees that surround them.

The PA/NJ-TACF Chapter was happy to sponsor a hike in the Allegheny National Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania on October 6.  This hike was part of the statewide “Walk in Penn’s Woods” event coordinated by the Walk in the Woods Partnership of Pennsylvania State University.

The group walked along a marked trail that traverses a relatively wild part of what is a surprisingly diverse and beautiful forest. Here and there along the trail are large surviving American chestnuts, some 8” diameter at breast height (dbh) or larger and over 50 feet tall. Participants were engaged, making interesting observations. One hiker was surprised by the bark on a 5” dbh chestnut. Unlike the bark on a young tree of this size, this one had bark that resembled that of a much older tree; perhaps because this tree, despite its size, was in fact quite old. Another hiker mentioned that the walk had really opened his eyes to the beauty of this deep forest. Someone else said that, while he heard many stories about American chestnuts, seeing some large surviving trees in the woods gave him a broader perspective.

The walk passed through several “chestnut hot spots” – sections with numerous chestnut stump sprouts and often with larger chestnuts trees. An idea that surfaced during the walk was that perhaps some of these hot spots could have competing oaks and other trees thinned out so as to encourage the resident chestnuts to bloom and set nuts, in effect, as hiker Ray Najjar put it, to “make the hot spots hotter.”

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