About Us
Darling 58 American Chestnut Public Comment Period has Ended
Thank you to everyone who showed their support for the Darling 58 blight-tolerant American chestnut tree by submitting a comment to the USDA!
More information can be found on SUNY ESF’s American Chestnut Project webpage or at The American Chestnut Foundation’s Resources page.
Erik Carlson’s Interview on the Talking Biotech Podcast
Erik Carlson, an ESF graduate student, discussed the American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project on Talking Biotech Podcast. In November 2021, Erik published a paper in Molecular Plant Pathology on the new lines of transgenic American chestnuts developed with the win3.12 inducible promoter from poplar (Populus deltoides), which drives OxO expression. The oxalate oxidase gene from wheat confers elevated chestnut blight resistance in American chestnut. The podcast discusses the background of the project, where the project stands, and the regulatory environment of repatriating a forest with engineered trees.
The Bur Newsletter
In the latest issue of The Bur:
• NY-TACF’s first “in person” Annual Meeting in three years
• District Director Reports: What’s happening in New York State
• Transgenic Chestnut Work Growing Beyond New York State
• ESF research updates
Pollination Workshop
ESF’s American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project discussed their outcrossing plan, as well as how to pre-bag American chestnut 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: Years End Ideas
The Chestnut Tree Video
Produced by the Templeton Foundation, one of our donors.
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.
New York Chapter Menu
National Facebook
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.
Let’s get some Chestnut 🌰 trees 🌳 so we can make them come back to American 🇺🇸 soil.
The PA / NJ Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation is holding a Spring Growers Meeting, April 1st at 8:30am-4pm. In person and virtual options available. Tickets sold online, click the event to learn more!
This is a grower-centric meeting focused of chestnuts. Planting, growing and breeding basics.
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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_tacf
Happy first day of Spring! 🌱
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
Latest News
The USDA’s approval of GE chestnut trees would be a step forward for threatened species conservation
"It is an exciting time in the field of conservation and biotechnology. For the first time, it appears likely that a tree that has been developed with genetic engineering (GE) could be approved by U.S. regulatory agencies for use in restoring a threatened species to...
Bringing Back the American Chestnut
"At the turn of the [20th] century, ...the American chestnut was devastated by blight... The blight swept through the Appalachian forest at a rate of 50 miles a year, leaving the species as nothing more than an early-succession-stage shrub. Now, the American...
Gene editing could save a nearly lost tree
Researchers at SUNY ESF are growing American chestnut trees that can withstand blight. They are ready to release the trees into the wild, becoming the first in the United States to use genetic engineering to bring back a forest tree to its former glory. Read the full...