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Restoring the Chestnut
Bringing Back the American Chestnut
In 1983 a dedicated group of scientists founded The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) with the mission of restoring the American chestnut to our eastern forests to benefit our environment, our wildlife, and our society.
Centered at our research farms in Meadowview, VA, the goal of TACF's breeding program is to develop American Chestnut trees that are resistant to the chestnut blight and able to create a self-sustaining population that can continue to evolve in a natural forest environment. Additionally, in order to breed trees that are regionally adapted to the wide range of the chestnut, TACF state chapters have established over 300 chestnut breeding orchards from Maine to Georgia, containing more than 120,000 chestnut trees.
In 2009, TACF announced the first forest planting of our potentially blight-resistant chestnuts we call "Restoration Chestnut 1.0". Today, planting, testing and evaluating these remarkable seeds continues, while additional breeding and development is underway to produce even more and blight-resistant chestnuts in the future. Much of this work, as well as the tending of breeding orchards is being done by some of the 6000 dedicated TACF members and volunteers in twenty states. These efforts are vital to the foundation's activities.
Recent developments in the science of molecular genetics now offer the promise of accelerating our breeding process by allowing us to screen the genetic sequences of chestnuts, to see if they have the genetic composition desired by our scientists.
Although it will likely be several decades before large quantities of American chestnuts once again populate our eastern forests, the future is beginning to look much brighter for "The Mighty Giant". |