Tower Hill Botanic Garden - American chestnuts

The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) is a nonprofit

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

organization dedicated to breeding a

blight Blight refers to a specific symptom affecting plants in response to infection by a pathogenic organism. Description Blight is a rapid and complete chlorosis, browning, then death of plant tissues such as leaves, branches, twigs, or floral organ ...

-resistant American chestnut (''Castanea dentata'') tree and the reintroduction of this tree to the forests of the

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. The mission of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) is to restore the American chestnut tree to the forests of Eastern North America by breeding genetically diverse blight-resistant trees, evaluating various approaches to the management of chestnut pests and pathogens, and reintroducing the trees into the forest in an ecologically acceptable manner. The American chestnut tree once comprised a quarter of the eastern hardwood forest from

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and west to the

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, providing a valuable economic resource in both

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

and

nut Nut often refers to: * Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, or a collective noun for dry and edible fruits or seeds * Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt Nut or Nuts may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Com ...

s, as well as an abundant food source for wildlife. An accidentally imported Asiatic

chestnut blight The pathogenic fungus ''Cryphonectria parasitica'' (formerly ''Endothia parasitica'') is a member of the Ascomycota (sac fungi). This necrotrophic fungus is native to East Asia and South East Asia and was introduced into Europe and North America ...

decimated approximately four billion trees, with devastating results to

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...

n communities and economies. TACF's work is accomplished by the combination of a small professional staff and a large group of volunteers associated with sixteen state chapters from Maine to Georgia/

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and west to the Ohio River Valley. Chapters leverage TACF's efforts by organizing volunteers to identify surviving American chestnuts,

pollinate Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds, a ...

these survivors with pollen from TACF's Meadowview Research Farms station in

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, and establish and maintain local breeding nurseries. These nurseries expect to eventually produce blight-resistant trees adapted to local conditions throughout the original range. The requirements for both genetic diversity and regional adaptability were the key factors in the establishment of the state chapter breeding programs manned by volunteers. A strength of TACF has been its ability to develop effective

partnership A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments o ...

s with other organizations leading to the advancement of the science relative to developing a blight-resistant tree. TACF has many cooperators involved in chestnut study and restoration, among them university partnerships, the

National Wild Turkey Federation The National Wild Turkey Federation is an international non-profit organization whose mission is 'the conservation of the wild turkey and the preservation of our hunting heritage.' It currently has more than 250,000 members in the United States, ...

, and the

US Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

. The American Chestnut Foundation differs from the

American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation The American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation (ACCF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit scientific and educational foundation organized in 1984. They are dedicated to restoring the American chestnut (''Castanea dentata'') to its former place in the United ...

, which is attempting to re-establish the species using pure American chestnut genetic stock. TACF was founded in 1983 by a group of prominent plant scientists, including

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

-winning plant breeder

Norman Borlaug Norman Ernest Borlaug (; March 25, 1914September 12, 2009) was an American agronomist who led initiatives worldwide that contributed to the extensive increases in agricultural production termed the Green Revolution. Borlaug was awarded multiple ...

;

Peter Raven Peter Hamilton Raven (born June 13, 1936) is an American botanist and environmentalist, notable as the longtime director, now President Emeritus, of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Early life On June 13, 1936, Raven was born in Shanghai, China ...

, Director of the

Missouri Botanical Garden The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Its herbarium, with more than 6.6 million spe ...

; independent chestnut researcher Philip Rutter;Author of ''Growing Hybrid Hazelnuts'', https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/growing-hybrid-hazelnuts/ and the late

Charles Burnham Charles Burnham may refer to: * Charles Burnham (politician) (1847–1908), American manufacturer and politician in the Wisconsin State Assembly * Charles Burnham (geneticist) (died 1995), American plant geneticist * Charles Burnham (musician) ...

, a Minnesota

corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

geneticist. In 1989 TACF established the Wagner Research Farm, a breeding station in Meadowview, in southwestern

, to execute the backcross breeding program. A second research farm in Meadowview was donated to TACF in 1995, and a third Meadowview farm was purchased in 2002. As of late 2005, TACF's Meadowview Research Farms have over 57,000 trees at various stages of breeding, planted on more than of land. In 2007, TACF began harvesting nuts that it expects will be suitable for planting back into the forest. However, these breeding lines are still in the testing phase, and their value needs to be proven on many forest sites until 2015 to 2020. One group of highly backcrossed blight-resistant chestnuts produced by the organization is 15/16 (ca. 94%) American chestnut ''(Castanea dentata)'' and 1/16 (ca. 6%) Chinese chestnut ''(Castanea mollissima)'', a source of blight resistance. A gradual increase in TACF

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

production is expected over the next few years. These will be distributed to cooperators who are assisting in a formal, rigorous testing program. In addition, seeds that are not needed for this purpose will be distributed for informal testing, principally to members of TACF. At the same time, TACF is continuing its breeding program to make further gains in disease resistance and forest competitiveness.

References

The American Chestnut Foundation
This set of PDFs of The Journal of the American Chestnut Foundation, from 1985 to 2008 so far, provides the definitive history of the organization: http://ecosystems.psu.edu/research/chestnut/information/journal {{DEFAULTSORT:American Chestnut Foundation Environmental organizations based in the United States Organizations established in 1983 Horticultural organizations based in the United States 1983 establishments in the United States