On Saturday, March 20, 2010, the New England Chapters of The American Chestnut Foundation^® (TACF^®) met for a Regional Chapters meeting at the Urban Forestry Center in Portsmouth, NH. The meeting was organized by Kendra Gurney, New England Regional Science Coordinator for TACF. Approximately twenty people attended, including Bryan Burhans, President of TACF. Jim Gage and Jack Ostroff represented the Connecticut chapter.

The discussions throughout the day were quite diverse, but included (among other topics):

• Updating the Chestnut Growers Manual
• TACF’s TreesDB project
• Chapter strategic and tactical planning
• Chapter Bylaws
• TACF’s Restoration Plan and Restoration Branches
• American chestnut range map
• Possibility: regional seed orchards

Please note that this is only general overview, and not a complete “minutes” of the meeting. If you want any further information or details about any of the presentations or discussions, please contact any of the people involved directly.

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Are you looking for a way to welcome spring to CT? Please join the CT Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation for planting at a brand new orchard site! On Saturday, May 8th CT-TACF will plant several American chestnut breeding lines (several hundred trees) at the newly-established Wigwam Book Orchard in Litchfield, CT.

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Do you know anyone interested in American chestnut and the current work to restore this important species to CT? Please spread the word that the CT Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) will hold our annual meeting in partnership with Trinity College in Hartford on Saturday March 6th.

Mar 4 - Important Notice for those attending the meeting.

Lynne Rieske-Kinney notified us that due to illness she will be unable to attend. We wish Lynne speedy recovery and hope we can reschedule soon! We still have a great program scheduled. We're allocating Lynne's presentation time amongst TACF Regional Science Coordinator Kendra Gurney, TACF President\CEO Bryan Burhans, and Dr. Tom Kubisiak! Tom was thrilled to get more time as he had the results of new research he wanted to share - which of course would take more time. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The meeting is free and open to all, however an RSVP is requested for planning purposes. The meeting includes presentations by USFS Molecular Geneticist Dr. Tom Kubisiak, and entomologist Dr. Lynne Rieske-Kinney of the Univ. of Kentucky. In addition, TACF President Bryan Burhans will attend to speak about TACF's ambitious new restoration plans. In all, the meeting will provide a great snap-shot of where we are, in terms of American chestnut restoration, and where we are going. Plus, this will be a great venue to meet local TACF members who are actively participating in this effort and learn how to get involved! More details are found at the Chapter's web-site or on the printable brochure.

The program includes the lectures, sessions on chestnut identification, 2 hours of CT Forestry\Arborist CEUs for those that qualify, lunch, and a tour of the Watkinson Library special rare-book collection at Trinity ... with a special exhibit produced especially for this event. RSVP Kendra Gurney at 802.951.6771 x1350 or via e-mail at kendra@acf.org.

The goal of the American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) is restoration of the American chestnut tree to its native range within the woodlands of the eastern United States, using a scientific research and breeding program developed by its founders. TACF is restoring a species - and in the process, creating a template for restoration of other tree and plant species. We harvested our first potentially blight-resistant nuts in 2005, and the Foundation hopes to begin reforestation trials with blight-resistant American-type trees before the end of this decade, using sound ecological principles.

Thanks!

--
Bill Adamsen
Director, The American Chestnut Foundation®
President, CT Chapter TACF

Kendra Gurney
TACF New England Regional Science Coordinator
802.951.6771 x1350 (o)
802.999.8706 (m)
Kendra@acf.org

Just a reminder that from Thursday though Sunday, February 19th through 22th, the CT Flower show is Hartford's big event. The event is held at the Hartford Convention center and is easily accessible from route 91 south or north.

A momentary bloom in winter's last icy grip, the show provides an opportunity for gardeners to dream about ideas for the spring and summer. It provides the chapter with an opportunity to meet and talk to folks about the chestnut's resurgence.

The chapter's display was coordinated by event chair Nancy Cebik, who arranged details from schedule to arrival of displays and pamphlets. Special thanks to Nancy, and also to all the chapter members who attended and volunteered their time at the display.

This is a reminder to mark Saturday March 14th on your calendar for the annual meeting of the CT Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation. The meeting will be held in Guilford, CT. The program is free for both members and non-members, as is lunch for those who advance register. To advance register simply call, or preferably e-mail to indicate your interest in attending.

We'll be presenting 2 1/2 hours of scientific lectures about the American chestnut. We'll also provide an update on both TACF's, and the CT Chapter of TACF's progress toward growing blight resistant trees. Those members collecting credits for the CT Arborists License can earn 2.5 CEUs for attending the program. The necessary paperwork will be available when you check in in person.

The presentations will be followed by operational meetings attended by those of you with an interest or business in attending. We hope you'll take advantage of this fantastic opportunity to hear Dr. Dane and find out more about the The American Chestnut Foundation vision and success. You are welcome to attend just those sections of the meeting that interest you as outlined in the agenda below.

Agenda
9:30am Opening Reception
10:00am Introduction - Chapter President Bill Adamsen
10:15am Keynote - Dr. Fenny Dane - Evolutionary history of American Castanea species
11:15am Sara Fitzsimmons - TACF Goes to China and propagation techniques used by TACF
12:00pm Lunch
1:00pm Kendra Gurney - Cold Tolerance for American chestnut. Plus TACF Operational Updates.
1:30pm Chapter Business (Bylaws, Elections, and then close of Annual Meeting)
2:00pm CT-TACF Board Meeting - Open to All!
4:00pm Expected close of Chapter business

About Our Keynote Speaker Dr. Fenny Dane earned her B.S. at Wageningen in the Netherlands, her M.S. at New Mexico State University and Ph.D. at Colorado State University. Dr. Dane's research program is geared toward unraveling stress tolerance mechanisms in plant species, and to the investigation of the phylogeny and biogeography of Castanea species. Dr. Dane discovered that chloroplast (cp) DNA sequence data set patterns were geographically structured, and has used cpDNA patterns to explain hypothesized migration and dispersion for chestnut and chinkapin. Home page of Fenny Dane at Auburn Migration of Castenea Article

Meeting Location
Nathanael B Greene Community Center -- 32 Church Street, Guilford

Driving Directions
I-95 northbound: Take exit 58 -- Keep right off the ramp and turn right onto Church Street/CT-77 southbound. Follow for .7 miles, through one traffic light. The Community Center will be on your right.

1-95 southbound: Take exit 58 -- Turn left onto Church Street/CT-77 and follow for .8 miles, through one traffic light. The Community Center will be on your right.

Parking
There is parking at the community center. For directions day of the event (in case you're lost) call the Community Center at -- 203.453.8068

Reservations
E-mail or call 917.796.4284 to reserve (for the free) lunch.

View Larger Map

Please come and join us in a joint celebration of the establishment of the Guilford chestnut orchard and the second Northeast Utilities donation of $8500 to The American Chestnut Foundation. We will celebrate these two developments by holding a check presentation, orchard tour, and picnic at the Guilford chestnut orchard (directions below) on Friday, July 18th. The event will commence at noon. Come and celebrate the chapter’s newest orchard, the second large donation made by Northeast Utilities, and learn more about our program.

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The Yale Chapter of the Society of American Foresters (SAF) planted a chestnut demonstration orchard at the Yale-Myers Forest in Union this past weekend. Every Yale School of Forestry Student visits Yale-Myers forest before starting classes and will have the chance to see this orchard and learn about the chestnut blight and The American Chestnut Foundation. The below photo shows all of the students who helped plan the orchard, which is shown in the back. Special thanks to the Yale Graduate Forestry SAF class of 1980 who supplied funds for the fencing.

Members of the Yale Chapter of the Society of American Foresters who participated in today's planting - Photo taken by Tom Hodgeman

Celebrate Earth and Arbor Days by helping The American Chestnut Foundation plant an orchard in Guilford, CT. Our goal is to produce a blight resistant American Chestnut tree that will thrive in Connecticut. We're doing this using a traditional plant breeding and selection approach. In celebration of Earth Day, we plan to build a fence around the orchard on Saturday April 19th following weekend on Saturday April 26th, in celebration of Arbor Day, we will complete the fence, layout the orchard and plant. Plan to bring work clothes and a smile!

For more information contact Leila Pinchot at 598-5808, or Jennifer Allcock at 453-5041.

By Leila Pinchot

On Tuesday, May 29th the Connecticut Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, in collaboration with Great Mountain Forest Inc. and the Housatonic Valley Regional High School, planted the last chestnut orchard of the season.

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Tuesday May 30th, Volunteers from the CT Chapter of TACF, students from Housatonic Valley Regional High School, and employees of Great Mountain Forest Corporation descended on a site on Undermountain Road in Falls Village to plant our long planned northwest CT backcross orchard.

Brigitte Ruthman from the Waterbury Republican-American has written this fantastic article (link below, and attached PDF)

http://www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=24817