History of The American Chestnut Foundation

The history of TACF chronicles the ongoing pursuit of a fundamental goal: to develop a blight-resistant American chestnut tree via scientific research and breeding, and restore the tree to its native forests along the eastern United States. The loss of these trees is considered by some measures to be among the greatest environmental disasters to befall the Western Hemisphere since the last Ice Age.

The American Chestnut Foundation was founded in 1983 by a group of prominent plant scientists who recognized the severe impact the demise of the American chestnut tree imposed upon the local economy of rural communities, and upon the ecology of forests within the tree’s native range. The American chestnut tree reined over 200 million acres of eastern woodlands from Maine to Florida, and from the Piedmont west to the Ohio Valley, until succumbing to a lethal fungus infestation, known as the chestnut blight, during the first half of the 20th century. An estimated 4 billion American chestnuts, 1/4 of the hardwood tree population, grew within this range.

The American chestnut tree was an essential component of the entire eastern US ecosystem. A late-flowering, reliable, and productive tree, unaffected by seasonal frosts, it was the single most important food source for a wide variety of wildlife from bears to birds. Rural communities depended upon the annual nut harvest as a cash crop to feed livestock. The chestnut lumber industry was a major sector of rural economies. Chestnut wood is straight-grained and easily worked, lightweight and highly rot-resistant, making it ideal for fence posts, railroad ties, barn beams and home construction, as well as for fine furniture and musical instruments.

The blight, imported to the US on Asian chestnut trees, is a fungus dispersed via spores in the air, raindrops or animals. It is a wound pathogen, entering through a fresh injury in the tree's bark. It spreads into the bark and underlying vascular cambium and wood, killing these tissues as it advances. The flow of nutrients is eventually choked off to and from sections of the tree above the infection, killing them.

In 1989 TACF established the Wagner Research Farm, a breeding station in Meadowview, Virginia, to execute the backcross breeding program developed by Philip Rutter, Dr. David French and the late Dr. Charles Burnham, three of TACF’s founding scientists. The three of them wrote the first important paper about the breeding program (The citation is:
Burnham, C.R., Rutter, P.A., and D.W. French.  1986.  Breeding
blight-resistant chestnuts.  Plant Breeding Reviews 4:347-397). The goal was to breed blight resistance from the Chinese chestnut tree into the American chestnut tree, while maintaining the American chestnut’s characteristics. Dr. Fred Hebard, a plant pathologist, was hired to supervise the research.

TACF’s backcross breeding program took Chinese chestnut trees, naturally resistant to the blight, and crossed them with their American cousins, resulting in trees that were 50% American, 50% Chinese. These trees were then backcrossed to the American species, resulting in trees which were 75% American. The procedure was repeated to produce an American chestnut tree that retains no Chinese characteristics other than blight resistance. In 2007, over 1800 nuts were harvested. About 500 of these will be planted into National Forest lands in 2008 and 2009. This is a remarkable achievement for the science of plant biology within the relatively short span of just over 25 years. A second research farm in Meadowview was donated to TACF in 1995 by Mary Belle Price, in memory of her late husband Glenn C. Price, a strong supporter of TACF. In 1999 TACF hired an agricultural research technician to allow Dr. Hebard more time for research. A third Meadowview farm was purchased in 2002, and a fourth in 2006. Today, TACF’s Meadowview Research Farms have over 30,000 trees at various stages of breeding, planted on more than 110 acres of land.

Dr. Paul Sisco, a plant geneticist, was hired in 1997. In 2000, TACF was able to begin expanding the regional aspect of its research. A new position was created for Dr. Sisco as TACF’s Regional Science Coordinator, promoting outreach science from the new Southern Appalachian Regional Office in Asheville, North Carolina. He also organizes and oversees regional research and breeding programs with TACF partners.

In 2002, TACF established a breeding orchard in partnership with Penn State University, TACF’s third partnership orchard in Center County, PA. The TACF-Penn State orchard is a 10-acre plot within Penn State’s 395-acre arboretum on the State College campus. The plot is dedicated to developing a blight-resistant American chestnut tree regionally adapted to Pennsylvania. Dr. Kim Steiner, Professor of Forest Biology at the Penn State School of Forest Resources, is Arboretum Director. Dr. Steiner is also a member of TACF Science Cabinet, which oversees the research programs. Northern Appalachian Science Coordinator Sara Fitzsimmons works from the Penn State offices. Thanks to funding from the Pew Charitable Trusts in 2006, TACF established a partnership with the Yale University School of Forestry, where newly hired TACF New England Regional Science Coordinator Leila Pinchot has office space.

TACF has cultivated a network of volunteers within 15 state chapters and many partnerships to assist in restoring the chestnut tree to the eastern forest, including the US Forest Service, the National Wild Turkey Federation, universities, & corporations.

Two independent reviews of TACF’s scientific mission, methods, and results, were conducted in 1999 and in 2006 by prominent scientists from around the world. They concluded that the vision of The American Chestnut Foundation to restore the American chestnut to its native habitat in the United States is being accomplished through the breeding program & other TACF activities, and that regional adaptability is key to a successful reintroduction of the American chestnut tree. The reviews were chaired by Dr. Ronald L. Phillips, Regents' Professor of Plant Genetics at the University of Minnesota and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

On March 26, 2007, TACF signed a letter of agreement to co-publish, “Mighty Giants: An American Chestnut Anthology” with the Vermont-based publishing company, Images from the Past. The idea is to tell the story and show the mission of TACF, with Images from the Past focusing our small category audience into a potential international audience, expanding our message to everyone. The first print run of the anthology was October of 2007.

Contents of "Mighty Giants: An American Chestnut Anthology":

• Chestnut scenes from artists such as Winslow Homer, Seneca Ernie Smith, Andrew Wyeth, Charles Burchfield, and a generous selection of seldom-seen photographs of American chestnut throughout its history.
• “Chestnuts in my Life” by Jimmy Carter.
• Poems by Wendell Berry and Robert Frost.
• Chestnut folklore and anecdotes, including reminiscences from southern Appalachia to New England, along with historical newspaper chronicles of the tree before, during, and after the blight.
• Chestnut reflections by plant geneticist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug, father of the “Green Revolution.”
• Colorful accounts of railroads and locomotives that logged mammoth chestnut trees in Appalachia, by Les Line, longtime editor of Audubon magazine.
• Chestnut recollections and inspirations from Bill Owens, Dolly Parton’s uncle, a Tennessee mountain man, musician, and champion of the tree.
• Excerpts from best-selling author Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer, about a curmudgeonly chestnut breeder and his cantankerous rural Virginia neighbor.

In 2008 TACF celebrates 25 years of growing success, 15 state chapters, a network of volunteers and partners, and a membership of over 6,000 members.