Maine Chapter

Maine – About Us

The Maine chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) was established in 1999 to help restore the American chestnut tree to our corner of America here in Maine. We live at the northernmost end of its natural range where chestnuts, like Mainers, make due with less sunshine and more cold. These suboptimal conditions made for sparser populations of chestnuts (and people) than southern climes, even before the blight.

Maine is currently home to more mature, flowering wild American chestnuts than any other state. Their success is due primarily to Maine’s geographic isolation from the denser populations of chestnut trees south of us, where the fungus spreads more readily. We have the joyful job of finding Maine’s wild trees and harvesting their nuts!

By growing chestnuts from wild trees, the Maine Chapter is preserving genes that have helped the chestnut adapt to life at the cooler edge of its range. Ultimately our gene conservation and breeding efforts are intended to produce hearty, blight-resistant populations of American chestnuts that we can use for forest restoration.

The chapter’s goals are to: 1) Protect, conserve, preserve, and propagate trees from the remaining native American chestnut populations in Maine; 2) Restore the American chestnut to a place of ecological and economic importance and self-sustainability throughout their original range in Maine, and 3) Make blight-resistant American chestnuts available to the people of Maine as soon as possible.

With your help we intend to restore this iconic species to Maine’s landscape, its wildlife, and its people.

Board of Directors

Key Contacts

Mark McCollough, Chapter President

Thomas Klak, Vice President & Chair of Gene Conservation

Al Faust, Treasurer

Eric Evans, Breeding Coordinator

Eva Butler, Volunteer Coordinator

Ann Rea, Seed Sales

 

Board Members

David Allen, Portland
Peter Bohman, Monmouth
Eva Butler, St George
Robert Duiett, Searsport
Kirby Ellis, Hudson
Eric Evans, Camden
Albert C. Faust, Winterport
Charles Hudson, Liberty
Dr. Tom Klak, Saco
Ronald Lemin, Bangor
Hunter Manley, Old Town
Mark McCollough, Hampden
Nina Pearlmutter, Kennebunkport
Ann Rea, Bangor
Glen Rea, Bangor
Andy Reed, Unity
Dr. Brian Roth, Orono
Larry Totten, West Bath
Roger Willby, Bridgeton

Maine Chapter Menu

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An example of how the volunteer chapters work and collaborate to use their orchards and resources toward the mission of creating blight resistant chestnuts.

In 2005, we harvested our first potentially blight-resistant chestnuts. We continue this rigorous testing and trials in the forest, orchard, and research labs. The return of the American chestnut to its former native range in the Appalachian hardwood forest ecosystem is a major restoration project that requires a multi-faceted effort involving members and volunteers, scientific research, sustained funding, and most importantly, a sense of the past and a hope for the future.
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An example of how the volunteer chapters work and collaborate to use their orchards and resources toward the mission of creating blight resistant chestnuts. 

In 2005, we harvested our first potentially blight-resistant chestnuts. We continue this rigorous testing and trials in the forest, orchard, and research labs. The return of the American chestnut to its former native range in the Appalachian hardwood forest ecosystem is a major restoration project that requires a multi-faceted effort involving members and volunteers, scientific research, sustained funding, and most importantly, a sense of the past and a hope for the future.Image attachment
1 day ago
The American Chestnut Foundation

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Comment on Facebook

Let’s get some Chestnut 🌰 trees 🌳 so we can make them come back to American 🇺🇸 soil.

The Vermont & New Hampshire chapter of TACF is now on social media. Be sure to like & follow!

Facebook: Vermont & New Hampshire Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation

Instagram: @vtnh_tacf
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The Vermont & New Hampshire chapter of TACF is now on social media. Be sure to like & follow!

Facebook: Vermont & New Hampshire Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation

Instagram: @vtnh_tacfImage attachment
4 days ago
The American Chestnut Foundation

Happy first day of Spring! 🌱 ... See MoreSee Less

Happy first day of Spring! 🌱Image attachment

Comment on Facebook

I have 83 acres in East TN, don't know if I have any Chestnut trees... I'll have to check this spring

I just found out our local school in northeast Bradford Pennsylvania . is planting chestnut trees around the school .the students have planned it all out

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Subscribe Here to receive our bi-annual newsletter and learn about events and activities around Maine such as, local events and presentations, ceremonial tree plantings, seedling/seed sales, and requests for volunteers at certain times of the year to help with the restoration effort.

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