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.
The Village Chestnut Tree Podcast
All across North America and Europe, trees are under mortal threat. In The Village Chestnut Tree podcast, Emmett Hoops discusses American chestnuts and what’s being done to save them.
Latest Episode: October News
The Chestnut Tree 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
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.
