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By Bill Adamsen Director of The American Chestnut Foundation President, CT Chapter TACF Wilton, CT |
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With the rush of autumn harvest over, The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF®) and its Chapters finally get the opportunity to look back and take stock of the past year. Some of you will know that it was just four years ago that the CT Chapter TACF® planted its first back-cross orchards (April 2006). In those four years our efforts have been met with remarkable success. We now have seven orchards and have planted several thousand trees - an accomplishment of which to be very proud.
*Note: Charts have been updated as of February 10, 2010 and are now complete and current. |
Table 1. CT Program Overview * [click for larger image] |
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Summary Tables The purpose of this report is to provide supporters, members. other constituents, and especially Members of the Board of Directors an update on CT Chapter operations. As you read through and look at the tables and graphs please note that much of this was done through the efforts of volunteers and members much like yourself. Much was facilitated by the unwavering support of a wide range of donors. If you've been a part of this success, as a volunteer, member, or donor, please accept the organization's enduring gratitude. Have questions or want to get involved? Please reach out to me directly to start a conversation. And of course we always look forward to meeting new supporters and participants who are interested in returning Chestnut to a position of ecological importance in the forests of CT. |
| The Summary Table (Table 2.) details the various types of trees planted in the research orchards and summarizes that data. Two of the types would be F1 (Chinese/American hybrid) or American chestnut. These are planted to serve as controls for resistance inoculation. In inoculation, trees of a size achieved after about four to five years of growth are inoculated with a blight inoculum of known virulence. The trees inoculated represent a continuum of expected resistance to the blight from strong - Chinese, F1 Hybrid, Back-cross, and American - to weak. By inoculating at the same time, this breadth of resistance facilitates evaluating which of the back-cross trees are most resistant, and to what degree. Table 2 shows the different types planted in each orchard, by year and then summarizes by type, year and also orchard. | Table 2. CT Program Summary * [click for larger image] |
| Table 3 details the back-cross lines planted in TACF® CT Orchards. Any resistant trees available for future planting would be bred from progeny of our back-cross orchards. The goal of the TACF® regional diversity program is to plant twenty lines - each line representing the capturing of genes of a local validated American chestnut through pollination of a local mother tree. Table 3 does not show the lines captured through breeding in 2009, only the trees that have grown from lines planted through 2009. So the trees shown as planted in 2009 were actually pollinated in 2008 or even earlier. | Table 3. CT Back-cross Trees * [click for larger image] |
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Graphs Showing Orchard Growth Distribution The following graphs show the grown of the trees in each of the orchards by line. Each graph represents the back-cross grown at one orchard. The axis have been equalized to ease comparison. A binomial formula tells us growing a minimum of seventy-three trees should give us a 99% probability that we will have four progeny with the genes for resistance, in a three gene model for inheritance. The additional trees give us the opportunity to select for desirable ecological traits. These graphs clearly show that trees grow at different rates based on a variety of orchard attributes. Based on the size of the trees in several orchards we are very close to the point when we can inoculate.
We have some experience in this area having completed a strategic planning process about four years ago. We have commitments from experts in breeding and reforestation to assist us with the process. So we're excited to engage and move this process forward. You'll be hearing more about this over the next few months. Should Strategic Planning be your strength - we'd look forward to hearing from you. |
Graph 1. CT Backcross by Year
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* At time of publication, measurements for the Great Mountain Forest Orchard were not available. Subsequently we have added GMFC's survivor totals and average heights to the charts and summary. |
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