On Saturday, May 1, 2010 dozens of hardy volunteers battled near-record heat to plant two American chestnut breeding orchards with the Connecticut Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation® (CT-TACF®). Volunteers included CT-TACF Board members, Forestry and Conservation Commission members, high school students, Cub Scouts and many others. Planting would not have been successful without so many willing hands (and backs!) pitching in to plant close to 500 chestnuts. A big Thank You goes out to everyone for their efforts!

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Saturday May 8th an eighteen member team of volunteer orchard planters descended on the Litchfield Hills Audubon Society's Wigwam Brook property to plant the new American Chestnut Foundation back-cross chestnut research orchard. The group, made up of members of the CT Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation and members of The Litchfield Hills Audubon Society (and quite a few members of both) sat out the first fifteen minutes in parked cars as a fierce storm crossed the area. Once the storm passed, the planting began. The goal was to plant several lines of back-cross nuts pollinated in June of last year as well a number of control trees. One line came from a tree pollinated by CT-TACF Board Member Gayle Kida in Willington, CT. The other lines were local and pollinated by John Baker in Litchfield, and Bill Moorhead in Torrington. The event was recorded by Waterbury Republican-American Newspaper Journalist John McKenna and published the following day as a lead story. See the original story as it appeared on-line in the Waterbury Republican-American. Click on the more link to read more about the event and see additional photos capturing the planting event.

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By Ellery Woods Sinclair Member of the Board of Directors CT Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation This past spring Christine Cadigan, the chapter's intern through a Duke University grant, and I scouted Salisbury's Mount Riga to find an accessible mother tree. I knew that Riga had an abundance of chestnut trees, especially root sprouts. Slowly driving up the mountain, we saw many small trees over-hanging and some back from the road under the forest canopy.

[click for larger photo] Immature Chestnut Flower Photo: Christine Cadigan

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by Jane Harris

Phase One of the collaboration between Middletown Connecticut's Urban Forestry Commission, Water & Sewer Department, AIC, Middletown Garden Club and the CT Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation (CT-TACF) is off to a roaring start!

The new Middletown orchard is in its test stage: the twenty American chestnuts planted May 30th will be carefully watched to make sure that this is a viable site for the future plantings of hybrid and back-crossed American chestnuts.

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By Bill Adamsen

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In December of 2008, John Baker, a member of long standing in both Litchfield Hills Audubon (LHA) and the American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) called to chat about a new property Litchfield Hills Audubon had recently acquired. The Wigwam Brook property in Litchfield is located along scenic Route 254 just south of the Lipekia Road intersection. The property is bounded to the west by Chestnut Hill Road, and is intersected by the beautiful Wigwam Brook whose watercourse and floodplain area connects to and protects a Class I waterway downstream. Roughly one third is grassland with two large beaver ponds and an old beaver meadow. There are 12 animal species of Greatest Conservation Need that have been identified on this property.

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By Sara Fitzsimmons

Soil and weeds will significantly and negatively affect the growth of young trees; grasses in old fields are especially tough competitors. Growers with most success keep a weed-free area of at least 2-3 feet in diameter around their trees. The following article details several alternative approaches we at at Penn State have seen (though not necessarily used) implemented for weed control. The article also has a poll to determine what you the audience feel is the best approach for weed control. Come back often to see how your fellow tree growers feel about the subject.

You can mow, mulch, use a tarp or other plastic wrap, or spray with herbicide in order to manage within row vegetative competition. Some growers prefer to use organic options of weed control, while others do not have this constraint. Between rows, PA-TACF encourages growers to control vegetation through mowing, as this will help control rodent populations within the orchard. Also, when tree shelters are employed, hand weeding within the tube will be necessary to control vegetation directly against young trees, at least for the first two years.

ORGANIC OPTIONS For a grower who strives to keep their land organically certified, the options for weed control include landscape fabric, black plastic mulch, cardboard, and even corn gluten. Generally, landscape fabric and plastic mulch are favored. Wood chip mulch may be applied over landscape fabric or cardboard to halt deterioration of the materials

1. Be careful with wood chip and black plastic mulch, particularly if you have not protected the stem with a tree shelter. Rodents, most often voles, like to live within or under mulch, just waiting for a vulnerable chestnut tree on which to munch.
2. Black plastic mulch is not permeable. Depending on the type of irrigation and fertilization method you choose, black plastic mulch may not be the way to go. Broadcasted granular herbicide will not be able to sink in through the plastic. You will need to water the trees individually with a liquid-based fertilizer, or use a drip-line irrigation system into which you inject a liquid-based fertilizer.
3. Landscape fabric is permeable, but often more expensive. Weigh the costs and benefits, and feel free to consult with the Chapter's tree breeding program coordinator.
4. Organic herbicide? Some gardener magazines suggest the application of a cocktail of lemon juice and vinegar to control offensive competing vegetation. Corn gluten is another option. The effects of these methods on chestnut culture have not yet been fully evaluated by the Chapter. Use at your own risk!

NON-ORGANIC OPTIONS The most often employed method of weed control by PA-TACF growers is through the use of commercially available herbicides. Although we do not officially endorse the use of any one herbicide, most growers use RoundUp or a similarly-formulated broad-spectrum herbicide. There are many generic brands of glyphosphate-based herbicides -- check around for different brands. In general, however, check the concentration, read the label well, and get a brand with an included surfactant, which will help the herbicide stick to the vegetation better.

1. Spray when the weather is clear and the target vegetation is actively growing.
2. Spray about 2 times per year, once in the early summer and once in the fall.
3. Keep an area 2-3 feet in diameter around your trees free of grass and weeds.
4. Be certain to protect the bark and leaves of the chestnut tree -- 2 foot tall plastic tree shelters work very well for this.
5. *Always* read the label and follow instructions on the herbicide. Unless you are fully certified and trained to work with herbicides, consult with your local extension agent and breeding coordinator before embarking on a killing spree with a potentially dangerous herbicide cocktail.

There are other herbicides out there that work differently and have more specific targets than RoundUp. These include chemicals specific to woodyvegetation or pre-emergent herbicides. Typically, these chemicals require certification or extensive personal protective equipment (PPE) for application.

Sara Fern Fitzsimmons
Northern Appalachian Regional Science Coordinator
The American Chestnut Foundation
The Pennsylvania State University
206 Forest Resources Lab
University Park, PA 16802

e-mail: sara@acf.org
phone (office): 814-863-7192
phone (cell): 814-404-6013
fax: 814-863-3600

http://chestnut.cas.psu.edu
http://www.acf.org
http://www.patacf.org

The CT Chapter has been the recipient of two generous grants which provided for the fencing and operational support of the American chestnut research orchard at Great Mountain Forest. Each grant was for $5000, totaling $10,000 and were from organizations which requested anonymity. The grants were restricted for use at the Great Mountain Forest Orchard.

The completed orchard fencing is a nine wire electric fence with the top wire at eight feet in height. This design differs from the solid lock link galvanized or polyethylene fences we're installed at other orchard locations as it is combines physical barrier with behavior modification. It has already been observed to modify the behavior of the significant deer population in the area. The orchard enclosure has maximized the area for planting and should allow planting of one or more additional lines.

Just completed orchard fencing at Great Mountain Forest - Photo taken by Bill Adamsen
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In addition to the fencing, the funding provided for continued operational support in the form of a summer orchard management internship. This has been extended to a (former) student from the Housatonic Valley Regional High School.

Thanks are due to the Staff at Great Mountain Forest Corporation (Jody Bronson and Star Childs) for providing support and the time to review plans and work with Falls Village Zoning to secure necessary approvals. Thanks goes out to CT-TACF Board Member Ellery Sinclair for coordinating the applications and construction.

In the spring of 2007, the Northern Connecticut Land Trust (NCLT) established a chestnut orchard at their Swann Farm property on Reeves Road in Ellington, CT. An enthusiastic group of 20 volunteers prepared the soil, erected a 1,100 foot deer fence, and planted 230 chestnuts on two beautiful Saturdays in April.

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The Woodbridge orchard is now 4 years from conception, 3 years since ground preparation and the pollination of the local American chestnut (the Calistro tree), 2 years since the first 168 nut planting, 1 year since the second planting (Manchester tree nuts). Our Calistro backcross trees are now just under 4 feet tall!

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Written by David Bingham, MD, Salem CT

For years, I have been working to expand the biodiversity of my back yard to restore some of the balance of nature we humans have upset over the centuries. Some wags joke about "Bingham's Weed Patch" as they drive past unkempt fields in our neighborhood that teem with many different native grasses, meadow wildflowers and early succession shrubs, attracting all manner of bugs and birds. Recent sightings of harriers and a short-eared owl suggest our local rodent population (mice and voles) is thriving as well.

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