Searching for Native Treasures:   Restoring the American Chestnut

The American Chestnut (Castanea dentata) has all but disappeared from its once majestic role as one of the dominant trees of the eastern US.  Following the chestnut blight's appearance in the early 20th century, chestnuts were reduced from being one of the great forest canopy trees to a few remnant sprouts that appear from sites of dead chestnut stumps.  Fortunately, the American Chestnut Foundation has been working to bring the chestnut back by backcrossing with European Chestnut to produce a 94% pure strain with some disease resistance.  The ACF is always looking for surviving chestnut in the wild that are able to live long enough to produce viable seed.  
Since we at Tennessee Heartwood are wandering in the woods a lot any way, we've always got our eye out for any tucked away chestnut treasures.  So far, we've found a number of good specimens, including a small grove of breeding upland trees at Linville Gorge in North Carolina.  After tipping off ACF to the site, we met some of their field folks at Linville to gather cuttings to add to their breeding stock. Thanks to BREDL Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League for joining in! See our slide show below.

If anyone knows of surviving chestnut that has reached breeding size, let us know.  We are always looking and are dedicated to protecting and restoring this great species!