NY-TACF’s 31st Annual Meeting and Tour of ESF’s Orchard
The New York State Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation will hold its 31st annual meeting online Saturday, October 16, 2021 from 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM. To join the meeting, download Zoom (https://zoom.us) to your computer or smart device and click the following URL: https://psu.zoom.us/j/92907862743. It is advised that you test out the link any time between now and the meeting. To join by phone, please call (301) 715-8592 and use meeting ID: 929 0786 2743.
A field tour will occur in person at the Lafayette Road Experiment Station. If interested, meet at 452 Lafayette Road, Syracuse, NY 13205 on Saturday, September 25 at 1:30 PM. ESF currently requires masks when gathering in groups. For questions, email Linda McGuigan at lpolin@esf.edu.
The Bur Newsletter
In the latest issue of The Bur:
• Helen Chase remembers her late father, Dr. Sherret S. Chase
• Dale Travis discusses an American chestnut planting at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, NY
• District Directors report what’s happening around New York State
• Students from ESF give updates on their research.
Pollination Workshop
ESF’s American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project discussed their outcrossing plan, as well as how to pre-bag female flowers, how they collect transgenic Darling 58 pollen, what to do when pollen is received, how to perform controlled pollinations, and how to protect nuts from animals during a virtual pollination workshop.
The workshop, beginning with a 20 minute video, can be view through TACF’s Chestnut Chat Series event listing.
Latest Video
Produced by the Templeton Foundation, one of our donors.
Fundraising Campaign Raises Over $100,000
In the spring of 2019, we launched a NY State Chapter campaign to raise $75,000. Our chapter’s board of directors had approved $50,452 to honor a request from SUNY-ESF’s American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project, to staff and “gear up” field and greenhouse operations in order to increase the number of transgenic Darling trees (the world’s first blight-tolerant American chestnuts) being grown for distribution. Through the generous gifts of many of our members and friends, we are proud to announce that we have raised over $100,000. Our sincere thanks to all who have contributed! Your love for the American chestnut, your commitment to science guided research, and your financial support, ensures that its restoration in our forests, will succeed.
Anyone still wishing to contribute can make out a check to NY-TACF, and mail it to:
NY-TACF Treasurer Fran Nichols
302 Bateman Road
Laurens, NY 13796
If you wish to contribute by credit card, you may use the Transgenic American Chestnut Research: ‘Darling 58’ link.
If you have any questions, please e-mail me at fajknichols.75@gmail.com, or give me a call at 607-263-5105.
Sincerely yours,
Allen Nichols, NY-TACF President
The Village Chestnut Tree Podcast
All across North America and Europe, trees are under mortal threat. In The Value of Membership! podcast, Emmett Hoops discusses American chestnuts and what’s being done to save them.
Latest Episode: The American chestnut, past and present
American Chestnut Seed Engraving
Sergey Jivetin creates elaborate engravings on the shells of seeds, including a series carved on American chestnut seeds depicting TACF’s American chestnut restoration efforts. On the first image below, the lower right-hand nut illustrates the American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project’s insertion of the Oxalate Oxidase gene into the American chestnut genome. The second image is a larger representation of that nut. To see more of Sergey Jivetin’s work, check out his website, Furrow Seed Engraving Project.
Donations
Donate here to assist with the SUNY-ESF Biotechnology Program. Donations are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
You can also make a donation by mail. Send check or money order made out to NY-TACF to:
NY-TACF C/O Treasurer Fran Nichols
302 Bateman Road
Laurens, NY 13796
Membership
Become a member of NY-TACF and chose the New York as your membership chapter. When you become a member of TACF, $15 of you’re membership goes to TACF’s New York Chapter.
Help Us Locate Wild American Chestnut Trees
The New York Chapter is searching for large surviving American chestnut trees in New York State to be “Mother trees” for restoration.
In an effort to introduce more wild American chestnut trees into the transgenic breeding program, the chapter is now offering a reward for American chestnut trees found growing in the wild. For more information, contact chapter president, Allen Nichols.
