PARTNERSHIPS IN ACTION
In 2006, TACF planted two American chestnuts in front of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, a museum that attracts more than four million visitors annually.
The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) seeks out partners that will not only help further its chestnut restoration program but also bring attention to the importance of the chestnut in American history. These partners include major universities, private foundations and businesses, as well as state and federal government agencies. With plantings at high-profile sites such as the White House, the Smithsonian Institution, and George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens, TACF has been able to attract significant support from many partners throughout the United States.
From small plantings to larger ones that showcase how our breeding program works, TACF is well-positioned as an organization that draws support from a diverse group of scientists, educators, business leaders and foresters. It then focuses the strengths of each partner toward a single goal - restoring the American chestnut to its native eastern forests.
Each of our partners offers a unique perspective on chestnut restoration and gives TACF the best possible opportunity to be successful in its scientific effort. The following are just some of TACF's partners:
National Forest Foundation
Yale University School of Forestry
The Pennsylvania State University
The United States Department of Agriculture's Forest Service
The National Wild Turkey Federation
Red Wolf Run Foundation
Pew Charitable Trusts
Wolf Creek Foundation
The Willow Grove Inn
The Association of Consulting Foresters
North Carolina Department of Transportation
Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History
The Carter Center
The North Carolina Arboretum
George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens
The Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative (ARRI)
As part of the restoration process, the American chestnut, one of the fastest- growing hardwoods, is being planted on some of the 1.2 million acres of Kentucky landscape that have been damaged as the result of decades of coal mining. These plantings are part of the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative (ARRI) which promotes the reforestation of these coal-mined lands using high-value, native hardwood trees including the American chestnut, to help heal the land. TACF and ARRI formed a partnership that will allow TACF to use ARRI's reclamation sites for establishing experimental plots. These plots will be used to evaluate the potential of reclaimed surface mines for establishing TACF's hybrid chestnuts on mined areas in the Cumberland Plateau. Several thousand chestnut seedlings have already been planted over several acres in eastern Kentucky. Reforesting this land with trees, especially fast-growing hardwoods like the American chestnut, on reclaimed mines will benefit landowners by providing them with a tree crop that can be periodically harvested.
The National Wild Turkey Federation
The National Wild Turkey Federation signed a Memorandum of Understanding with TACF to benefit American chestnut trees and wild turkeys. Through the MOU, the NWTF will work with TACF to plant blight-resistant chestnut trees in orchards to provide a future source of American chestnut trees for wild turkeys.
Together, the NWTF and TACF will work to improve forest health by eventually planting American chestnut trees to benefit wildlife in the eastern United States from Maine down to Georgia. The single purpose of both the NWTF and TACF is to restore a species that will benefit forest health and many other species of wildlife. This is a wonderful opportunity for two volunteer-based organizations to come together to do fieldwork in the restoration process and to have a coordinated effort with regard to using federal forestland, something the Forest Service has encouraged for many years.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy
Scientists and volunteers from The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) and Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) will train PATC volunteers to collect data on American chestnut trees identified along the Appalachian Trail (AT). The effort is part of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s AT Mega-Transect Project, which seeks to engage the public in citizen-science efforts to collect data along the AT to raise awareness of threats to the environmental health of the Appalachian Region.
Two types of data will be collected: (1) total number of American chestnut trees three feet in height or taller within fifteen feet on either side of the trail and (2) location and description of large individual trees eight inches or greater in circumference at 4.5 feet above ground. The data will contribute to understanding the status of surviving remnants of a species that played a key role in forests throughout Appalachia before being devastated by a blight fungus imported with Asian chestnut trees in the early Twentieth Century. Data on large individual trees with the potential to produce flowers will assist TACF in increasing the genetic diversity of its backcross breeding program, which is intended to restore the American chestnut tree to its former place in the region’s forests by producing an otherwise American chestnut with the blight resistant characteristics of Asian chestnut.
Print A TreeIdentification Sheet
AT Mega-Transect Project Description
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