Dear Friends and Cooperating Growers:

In special thanks to the many volunteers who have helped us reclaim the Lesesne research plot, we feature a virtual tour.  

The Lesesne is surrounded by state forest lands of the same name which were donated by the DuPont family to the Virginia Dept of Forestry (VDF) for American chestnut research.  Al Dietz, cooperating with the VDF, planted here in 1969, on a gentle south-facing slope at the foot of the Blue Ridge in deep fertile loam soils.  His original planting was about 10 acres, divided into three squares with 40 rows and columns in each square and the chestnuts planted on 10 foot centers.  These chestnuts had been exposed to ionizing radiation in an experiment aiming to induce mutations favorable to blight resistance.

Over the years, nearly all of Al's chestnuts have died from blight, and then from deer browsing the new shoots and from intense competition of other trees when state funds for maintenance were cut.  With the exception of the roadways leading up to and between the squares and the western edge of the middle square the planting disappeared in a tangle of vines and other trees.

The western edge was saved because there in 1980, Bruce Given and John Elkins of our informal American chestnut research group had worked with Tom Dierauf   (VDF)  to graft large survivors into the stocks of the blight-killed chestnuts.  In 1982 and '83, the first blight cankers on the grafts were  inoculated with a mixture of hypovirulet (weak) strains of the blight fungus obtained from Jack Elliston in Connecticut.  Research conducted by Virginia Tech graduate students, supported by the ACCF has shown some of these hypovirulent strains have spread, over the past 26 years, throughout the grafted trees.  These grafts inspired me to add to the collection.

My scope was quite limited until John Buschmann approached the VDF to enlarge our edge by clearing an acre, or the first 24 columns on the west side.  Then, in 2002, a National Wild Turkey Federation grant made it possible for us to clear and plant 5 rows of second-generation all-Americans (Ruth x Miles) along the downhill, southeast side.  The following winter, once again the VDF pitched in to clear the rest of the square, making planting room in which we have established several additional breeding lines by direct-seeding nuts beginning in 2003; they are first- and second-generation intercrosses among six different parent trees.

In each case, before clearing, we flagged all the chestnut stems to be saved for resistance testing; most failed the tests.  On the western side we left many failed chestnuts to witness the continuous cycles of death by blight followed by regeneration via root sprouts; we use the others for grafting stock.

Mainly I graft the parent trees whose progeny we have been planting here, but also, some related chestnuts, such as "Ed", with its first blight canker swollen, a very strong-growing volunteer  from a Virginia Tech breeding orchard, and "Joyce" an advanced intercross (Parent x F1) made by John Elkins in 1993, which has thrived with blight infection in a severe environment.

Because foresters don't like to cut down beautiful trees, in addition to all the chestnuts, ranging in age from one to 49 years old, there are four large tulip poplars and one oak among the upper eastern rows and in the space between the upper and lower rows.  Probably around 20 years old and up to 60 feet tall, they illustrate the site's growth potential.

We have kept to the approximate 10 foot spacing between chestnuts, but more than doubled the space between rows at VDF request for vehicle travel.  In the center of the square, the VDF bulldozed the cleared trash trees to fill a big dip; a similar dump is at the beginning of the first row at the bottom of this dip.  These places have become havens for birds, blackberries, and snakes.  In rows two through 5, many chestnuts planted in the dip died of apparent root rot, and we have left most of these spaces planted in grass.  We also left a broad space between the upper and lower rows and a lesser one between the western side and the eastern rows.  These are buffer zones against the spread of root disease.

In spite of watering, many of the seedlings planted in 2002 struggled for several years, with yellowish-green leaves and little or no growth increments, and many of them died in their first two years, before we discovered that Phytophthora was a problem here.  We can guess how this soil-born disease may have been introduced because it is endemic in Piedmont soils, and the Lesesne is near the edge of the Piedmont:  it was probably transported here on the tires of vehicles that had driven in infected fields or roadways.

After one of the big inspirational chestnut grafts died from root rot, Gary cordoned off the area around the two nearby grafts whose root systems were in contact with the dead tree to ward off foot travelers and inhibit deer.  Inside the cages where small seedlings had died, apparently from root rot, we removed them, treated the soil with SubdueMax fungicide drench and planted grass.  We also spread grass clippings around the outside of cages and sprinkled gypsum inside the cages of nearby seedlings to help control the spread of this disease.

These measures cannot save the big chestnuts with extensive, deep root systems, so Gary has been treating them with a combination of fungicides, painted on the lower bark (where Phytophthora can cause collar rot) or injected into the stem from whence it works down to the roots.  These treatments are experimental, but they have been used with success in avocado orchards.  He also covered the soil at the base of the trunks with limestone gravel, to prevent splashing of soil onto the bark during heavy rains.  Other measures to contain the spread of Phytophthora:   vehicle traffic is minimized and restricted to the roadways; we treat shoes, tools, gloves used in the infected area with 20% Clorox solution for two minutes; the contract mower power-washes his equipment, does not mow within 24 hours of a rainfall, and begins at the top of the plot, working downhill and avoiding the cordoned-off area.

Before we discovered the Phytophthora problem,  weeds appeared to be the most trouble.  This is to be expected in any fertile site in full sun. Where the soil is deepest  and in the dip, which holds moisture longest, by August the weeds are over my head.  I  tried tree mats to control weeds inside the cages; the tree mats encouraged voles.  We use Roundup between and outside the cages, and I hand-weed inside the cages, once in winter and twice in the growing season.  Weeding one row can take an hour.

Probing for vole tunnels with a stick, at first I seeded the tunnels with Prozap or another more expensive poison.  I found so many tunnels, I think chestnut roots must be the voles favorite food.  They may graze on feeder roots of seedlings for many years, severely stunting the growth (also causing yellowish-green leaves), or in a drought they may be capable of consuming the whole taproot, leaving a once three-foot tall chestnut seedling rootless and leaning against its cage.  In this way, I lost about a dozen seedlings here last August.  This year I tried Molemax sprinkled inside the cages, in March and June, with extra doses whenever new holes appeared or where my probe turned up new tunnels.  This has been more effective than poison (unless the poison had already knocked off most of the vole population), and this summer most of the formerly stunted chestnuts are thriving and many have doubled their size.  I will  apply Molemax again in September.  On the chance that nutrition delivered via the leaves may assist recovery of the chestnuts with vole-damaged root systems,  I spray the seedlings having poor leaf color with iron chelate and magnesium sulfate, on alternating weeks.
NOTE:  It is inadvisable to plant chestnuts in or near former apple orchards because voles are famous apple orchard pests. 

We plant empty spaces where chestnuts  have died from blight or voles by direct-seeding with members of the same family which were open-pollinated on a precocious F2 graft or on one of the parent trees.  There are about 30 places to be re-seeded this winter.   In drought, watering the one- and two-year old chestnuts can take two hours. 

There is so much work to be done in this plot, we work here most Tuesdays.  On workdays November through January, we prepare planting holes, direct-seed the nuts from the previous fall, erect protection cages and transplant volunteers (planted by squirrels, often inside the cages).  In February,  I am collecting scions and preparing the stems to be grafted beginning mid-March through April.   In late spring and summer, I try to cruise the whole plot,  checking and tying up the new grafts, straightening out any cages which the deer have crashed into and looking for other problems, with a roll of flagging and a Sevin sprayer handy.  Besides defoliation, insects can wound the tiny stems of new seedlings, providing an entry for blight before the seedlings are big enough to express resistance; they can take out the leader of big seedlings.   So I spray the newly planted chestnuts and those leaders still within reach on the bigger chestnuts.
 
Among my Lesesne grafts, 7 are bearing nuts and 4 others have made their first male flowers.  Among the seedlings planted in 2002, 38 have outgrown the 5-foot  tall cages and are enclosed in heavy-gauge, 4-foot cages with a bigger grid for easier weeding inside cages.  Eight of these are bearing nuts and an equivalent number made first male flowers.  Among the seedlings grown from chestnuts direct-seeded in 2003, 17 have outgrown the 5-foot cages, one made early flowers, and the tallest, at 18 feet, nearly equals the size of the champion among the seedlings in the lower rows which had a two-year head start!  The glorious chestnut grafts of 1980 are showing no signs of decline and producing big chestnut crops.  For the time being, the infection in their roots is under control.

The Lesesne is the largest of many research plots where American chestnuts in our breeding program are under study, producing information as well as chestnuts.  Future newsletters will visit the other plots.

Those of you who can travel and are unwilling to wait a year, may see one or more of the other research plots by volunteering to help at harvest, weekdays  September 22 through October 10.  To volunteer, suggest a date when you may be able to help, by e-mail to accf@hughes.net

My 2008 Report shows a total of 469 chestnuts surviving, mostly from direct-seeded nuts; 71 are new this year.  I have 99 grafts, only 18 of which are new, and 2 of these I shall have to destroy since they have been ID'd as American x Japanese hybrids.  We shall no longer solicit scions or identify leaves for others, because of the time involved.  To make the most of many possible intercrosses among the 12 parent trees already identified by our tests as blight resistant, we must concentrate on them. 

We received Reports from 209 growers in  2007, reporting on  5,175 ACCF chestnut survivors.  Where are the rest of the reports?  Since 1985 we have sent out about 160,000 American chestnuts. Where have all these chestnuts gone?  So far in 2008 we have received 141 reports, of 4,286 survivors

At the 100th anniversary of the founding of the American Phytopathological Society, Gary's invited talk, reviewing and evaluating recent progress in the many branches of American chestnut research, was very well received.  Among the best pictures shown were the two biggest Lesesne grafts and John's "Joyce " chestnut.  This is the objective opinion of an interested observer.

Several years ago, Douglas J. Buege spent a week, working with us in many of our chestnut plots, as part of his preparation to write about the organizations working for American chestnut recovery.  His book has a few small errors and a final chapter with which we do not agree, but otherwise we recommend If a Tree Falls for evenhanded reporting written in engaging style.  Available from Xlibris Corp. at 1-888-795-4274 or  Orders@Xlibris.com

Thanks to Outstanding Cooperators
    who helped with the 2007 harvest:  Philip Latasa, Tim Logan, Vincent Roberts, E. C. Horman, Harold & Rich Pierce, Albert Ward, Molly & Shawn Hash.
    who assisted in spring 2008 grafting:  Eli Lewis and Elizabeth Cooper.
    who probed for voles and made the March Molemax application in the Lesesne:  Victoria & Eli Lewis.
    who gave substantial funds that support student technicians to keep chestnut research going in the laboratory at Virginia Tech and pay the contractors for maintenance and improvements in the largest research plots:  The National Wild Turkey Federation, John B. Buschmann, Carl Mayfield, and Violet Pesinkowski.

Our directors believe in the all-American chestnut breeding program.  This is the reason for the ACCF.  We are working to restore 100% American chestnuts in our forests.  However, some of our growers have been hedging their bets and also planting hybrid chestnuts developed elsewhere.  The nuts from their plantings will not be all-American; in this way the ACCF contribution to American chestnut restoration could be diminished or erased.

To insure that American chestnut groves, established with our help, accurately reflect our breeding program, we have changed the Grower Agreement form.  To order or request ACCF seedlings, chestnuts or scions, please fill out and return the new form  (link on front page).  If  you have already reported via our Web site, please indicate this on the Report form.  The $20 donation to ACCF research is unaffected by inflation, but please note that the nursery cost of seedlings is valid only for the 2008 supply.

When we establish a chestnut planting, we try to plant on sites which are ideal for growing American chestnuts, but a trouble-free chestnut site has not yet been found.  So if you want a successful chestnut planting, you must commit to defend your work, in spite of all losses.  You may e-mail me for advice in dealing with trouble as it arises (accf@hughes.net), or write in the space at the bottom of the Report Form.  Your reports are most welcome;  we look forward to them.

    Respectfully submitted,
    Lucille
    Lucille Griffin, Executive Director

Other ACCF Directors
Gary Griffin, President, Professor Emeritus of Plant Pathology, Virginia Tech

Dave McCurdy, Vice-president, retired  Superintendent, Clements State Tree Nursery, WV

John Rush Elkins, Secretary, Research Chemist, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, Concord  College, WV

William Pilkington, Treasurer,   Financial Advisor, Ghent, WV

Ed Greenwell, Director of Tennessee chestnut projects, Electrical Engineer, Cookeville, TN



Dear Friends and Cooperating Growers:

If you have reported on previous ACCF plantings and donated $20 in 2007, and if we have a Grower Agreement Form on file in your name, you are welcome to order American chestnut seedlings (through November) and/or nuts (until October 15). The 2007 cost per bundle of 25 or fewer American chestnut seedlings is $27.  Growers west of the Mississippi need to add $5 extra per bundle to cover higher mailing cost.   Please make the check payable to ACCF.

From the 2006 Virginia harvest we sent 3,880 nuts to cooperating growers, 4,698 nuts to nurseries in West Virginia, and last winter the nursery distributed 4,535 American chestnut seedlings to our cooperating growers.

HARVEST
You can either harvest chestnuts out of the trees in their burs or off the ground where they have dropped.  Following last falls abundant harvest,  I thought we might switch to this second method, eliminate the storage problem and the job of getting nuts out of burs, and greatly decrease the numbers to be processed and sent to growers.   The squirrels have been good cooperators for several years now, planting nuts in every one of our breeding orchards and even starting some of them right in the row where there was a space, so I do not mind letting them have a bigger share.   However, Dave McCurdy tells me that the nursery chestnuts will produce a much smaller crop this fall because of poor pollination.  So we must try for the big harvest once again, to be able to send the nursery sufficient seed to make 2008 seedlings.  
    Chestnut trees are individuals with different schedules:  they do not all ripen their chestnuts at the same time, but over a period of roughly two weeks which, in Virginia, usually begins in the last week of September.  Harvest starts when burs begin to crack open, then the burs on that tree may be ready to pick.  However, burs which contain no viable nuts may crack open as much as two weeks early, and chestnut trees often contain small numbers where the flowers happened not to be fertilized.  Furthermore, the first chestnuts to make flowers contain much larger numbers of infertile nuts, because many of their flowers were receptive before any pollen was available.  So before picking a tree we make sure that the cracked burs contain full, fat chestnuts, not sunken blanks.  We use hand clippers and a pruning pole that extends up to 12 feet, and sometimes also a 6-foot ladder.  Wearing leather gloves we collect the burs into dog food bags, marked with the date and the name of the mother tree and store them in a rodent-free cool place, in the basement or in lidded garbage pails in the shade.
    MANY THANKS to the volunteers who helped pick chestnut burs in 2006:   Matt Habersack, Albert Ward, Nate Faris, Rich and Harold Pierce.     To help at harvest, e-mail Lucille at accf@hughes.net for a date and directions.  We will not begin picking the burs before the week of September 24, leaving our yard at 9 a.m.;  in  afternoons the first week of October, we should begin getting the nuts out of the burs.   We will not harvest on the weekends of September 22 and 29 because of home football games.   
    We check the storage bags once a week, dumping the contents onto a picnic table to see if more burs have cracked open .  Wearing heavier leather gloves, we remove the nuts from their burs, then return the unopened burs to their bags for a few more days in storage, when they can be checked again.  In years of fall drought, some burs will not crack open unassisted:  rolling the bur back and forth underfoot sometimes does the trick.  Burs which cannot be opened by humans may be scattered in the woods, where the animals can deal with them or they might be planted, expecting a very low percentage to make seedlings. 
 
WEEVILS  are common throughout the range of American chestnuts, especially in areas where Chinese chestnuts have been planted and their nuts and burs are left to rot on the ground.  The insect lays its eggs in the young chestnut flowers and weevils (tiny worms) develop inside the chestnuts and burs.  The weevils over-winter in the ground where they emerged from wasted nuts and spent burs to hatch out the following spring and increase destruction of the next nut crop.  To control weevils, you make a clean harvest, burn or bury the burs and ruined nuts and encourage your neighbors to do likewise.

PROCESSING & STORAGE
We must assume there may be weevils in the chestnuts, so we give our chestnuts a hot water bath at 120 F for 20 minutes to  kill  weevils the same day that the nuts come out of the burs.  After the hot bath, we put the chestnuts in a cold bath to stop the heat treatment.  Once they are cooled down, we pat them dry and spread them on newspapers till they are no longer damp; then we pack them with slightly damp peat moss in plastic bags with a few pin holes for air exchange and send them to growers.
    Those chestnuts which we keep to plant in our research plots, we place inside plastic mayonnaise or peanut butter jars in which small holes have been drilled, in a 50/50 mix of sand and peat moss.  We bury the jars under about 4 inches of soil with grave markers.  In Virginia the chestnuts can be safely stored this way until early February, when many of them will begin sprouting.  We have direct-seeded chestnuts in November, December, January and February and have had the best success with January planting.
      Growers who do not plant their chestnuts when received, but store them in the refrigerator, should check the bag at least once a week, to be sure the chestnuts are not drying out or getting wet and becoming moldy, then turn the bag onto the other side.  It is too easy to forget this chore and let the seed spoil in storage; in this way, very large numbers of seed are lost each year because growers cannot plant when they receive them.
    You may notice on the Grower Agreement Form that we will be sending only 10 chestnuts per grower request.   Growers who need a larger number for a group project may obtain more by volunteering at harvest, taking your chestnuts in the burs and doing the processing yourselves.

GYPSY  MOTH has invaded Giles County.  Luckily, only one of our research plots was infested.  I first noticed tiny black caterpillars toward the end of May, picked off by hand those within reach on our chestnuts, squashed them and sprayed with Sevin.  Their numbers and size increased at an alarming rate.  It became necessary to visit the plot at least twice a week, pick them off and stomp them, spray after each rain.  While the tall canopy oaks were completely stripped of leaves, followed by nearly all the other hardwoods and understory trees and bushes, our chestnuts thrived in the additional sunlight.  The battle to save them lasted about 3 weeks, and we must expect a similar job in this plot in future years.  We noticed that the gypsy moth does not eat the leaves of the tulip poplar or cucumber magnolia.  This suggests that plantings located in clearings within solid groves of these species (such as the Pandapas plot below our yard) may be less likely to suffer a gypsy moth attack.
         
GROWERS REPORT 
516 of the American chestnuts I planted are still growing.  Among them, 155  are new this year, although 20 of these are not planted on their permanent sites but growing in a yard nursery, for transplant following dormancy this November.  These 20 are survivors from a bunch of rejects: they appeared during processing to be in very poor condition, too discolored --suggesting possible mold-- or too dry to send to growers or to the nursery; they are a great example of the benefit of getting the seed right into the ground.   In addition to the numbers above, we have at least 3 dozen chestnuts which I did not count because they were planted by the squirrels.  My tallest seedling is Pacman E; I am unable to measure it without help.  The tallest grown from 2006 nuts are 2 feet.  Six of my seedlings are bearing nuts.  Losses in our research plots were attributed to voles, root rot or blight.

As of December 7, we have received 194 reports, for a total of 5,027 ACCF chestnuts reported.  These numbers will be updated, as more reports come in.

GRAFTERS REPORT
  The past two years I have tried a few topgrafts (whips), choosing stocks among sunny -side branches on blight resistant American chestnuts which are growing in places where a pollinator is distant or lacking.   On the down side, because the grafted branches are only 1/4 inch in diameter, the graft is vulnerable to blight.  However, these grafts are much easier to execute because you are not lying on the ground and there is nothing to inhibit making the cuts exactly as you want to, so I judged it worth the risk.   Two of my new grafts this year are topwork and  although they are still alive, their branches could go out this winter.   Including these, I have 19 new grafts growing in 4 sites.  All but 2  (triangles) are whip grafts.  Last winter we lost several big grafts (voles eating the roots) and had the tops blight-killed in several others.  Surviving are 105 grafts, divided among 9 sites.  The tallest is Thorofare Gap, grafted in our yard in 1991.  Forty-one of my grafts bear nuts, and their pollen is improving the potential of the chestnuts harvested in 5 of our breeding orchards.
    Yes, indeed, I am bragging a little, hoping to interest some more of you in learning to graft, to improve your own chestnut plantings, like Harold Pierce is doing in Alabama:  he has 2 grafts from 2005, one from 2006  and 8 from 2007;  all  bark grafts into chinquapin, they represent a very nice variety of blight resistant American chestnuts.  Health problems prevented Carl  Mayfield from grafting this year, but he has sent in a wonderful report of  29 grafts surviving from past years; among them are nearly all the American chestnuts of note in our breeding program.

NATHAN PEASE UPDATE
The Nathan nutgraft on which we have been reporting the progress of blight-resistance trials has been killed by a root rot.  Another, smaller Nathan nutgraft on a different site is in its second summer with blight.  It has 7 burs. 

WATERING
The bare-root seedlings from the nursery require one gallon of water each week of drought through their first two growing seasons.  For successful planting, it is very important to plan for this.  On planting sites where watering may be a problem, it is best to plant smaller numbers and consider starting from nuts instead of seedlings.
    Here in Virginia, we often have drought in August, and in some of our plots, also in July and September.  So we have been establishing the Pandapas plot, by direct-seeding  about 20 per year, with the goal of making a  grove of 100 American chestnuts in the National Forest 100 yards down the mountain from our yard.   We plant the nuts inside 8 inch tree shelters, sunken a few inches in the ground and surrounded by wire cages to deter raccoons.  The small seedlings, less than two feet tall, can survive on a quart of water per week of drought because their roots are equal to the stems and sometimes larger (whereas nursery seedling roots were trimmed at lifting).  We remove the short tree shelters after the first growing season.
    In Turkey Run, the two research plots are both 100 yards up the mountain from the access road.  These plots were originally for grafting, but so many of the native root systems have been weakened or killed, we decided to plant about a dozen seedlings to make up the deficit.  Direct-seeding there just provided more food for a large vole population.   Therefore, this winter we started nuts in December by the Moote Method, in a south-facing window , as follows:  using 18 inch tree shelters with newspaper liners, we filled them with a 50/50 mix of damp peat moss & sand, let the fill settle for a day and then press a nut one inch down, lay  plastic wrap on top until the sprouts begin to emerge (about one month), water sparingly, the same as other house plants.  In January and February we dug 2 foot planting holes and put gallon milk jugs full of water, 3 each per hole, inside the cages where animals could not steal the water.   During a rainy week in May, we transplanted the 6 to 8-inch tall seedlings.  These tiny seedlings also can get by on about a quart of water per week of drought. Watering them in the cool of early morning through the summer heat was made easy, with the supply already on site.

We thank the National Wild Turkey Federation for continuing generous support of our cooperative research with the Virginia Department of Forestry, USDA-Forest Service and Virginia Tech, breeding for blight resistance, establishing and maintaining forest plots of ACCF all-American chestnuts.
   
SPECIAL THANKS to more OUTSTANDING COOPERATORS:
     John B. Bushmann, Ken James, Carl Mayfield,  and Violet Pesinkowski,  long-term, big supporters of the research for American chestnut restoration.
    Philip Latasa once again volunteered several days  in the Lesesne last winter, making the work go faster as we moved protection cages, removed tree mats, weeded and treated the soil with gypsum (where we have had root-rot in the past) and prepared new planting holes.
    Remmington Bolt  also volunteered several days last winter, pruning trees at the Airport and cutting trees at Turkey Run.       

    These are a few of my favorite things:  working outdoors, the company of towhees, bluebirds and indigo buntings, watching chestnuts grow, the green of new leaves unfolding on grafts and seedlings,  a complete row of American chestnuts, a  fawn springing  up from its bed in the tall weeds, a newly mown or completely weeded research plot, hundred-foot tall tulip poplars right next to a chestnut plot, the perfect mornings in March and April when I  graft with highest expectations,  the moments each year when the last newsletter is in the mail, the last nuts are off to growers, the last orders, to the nursery, and lots of reports about ACCF chestnuts.  Thanks again for sending your report.
            Respectfully submitted,

            Lucille Griffin, Executive Director

Other ACCF Directors
Gary Griffin, President, Professor of Forest Pathology, Virginia Tech
Dave McCurdy, Vice-president,  Superintendent, Clements State Tree Nursery, WV
John Rush Elkins, Secretary, Research Chemist, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, Concord         College, WV
William Pilkington, Treasurer,   Financial Advisor, Ghent, WV
Ed Greenwell, Director of Tennessee chestnut projects, Electrical Engineer, Cookeville, TN

Dedicated to the restoration of American chestnuts

2005 Newsletter

Outstanding Cooperators:
John B. Bushmann, Ken James, Karl Mayfield, and Violet Pesinkowski are long-term, outstanding supporters of and contributors to American chestnut research.

Charlie Elgin and another gentleman, whose name I have misplaced, helped with the 2004 chestnut harvest. We hope to recognize the unidentified gentleman here next year.

Jenny & Lizzy Cooper cut trees in the Turkey Run plot and grafted, spending their spring vacation helping the American chestnut cause.

INTERNET RESOURCES:  Ed's Web page showing Nathan's progress  http://www.accf-online.org/nathanblight.htm

The Tennessee ACCF site, also by Ed:  http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/1436/

ACCF Links page, by Ed, featuring a March 2003, photo of Jenny Cooper grafting in Craigs Creek research plot:
http://www.accf-online.org/links.html

We are working for American chestnut restoration with the hope of making a small contribution which might be multiplied many times throughout the natural range and through the generations to improve our forests. This is often hard work and also demands a stubborn, long-term commitment, keen observation skills and a thoughtful, rapid response in problem-solving. It teaches the habit of keeping notes and is a great introduction to scientific study. With our work product constantly exposed to the forces of nature, we learn to develop patience in adversity and humility in success. Our spirits are uplifted by each small advance, and we give thanks. These are the values which made our country great. You cannot go wrong by involving the whole family, children and grandchildren in American chestnut restoration.

Respectfully submitted,
Lucille Griffin, Executive Director


Other ACCF Directors
Gary Griffin, President, Professor of Forest Pathology, Virginia Tech
Dave McCurdy, Vice-president, Superintendent, Clements State Tree Nursery, WV
John Rush Elkins, Secretary, Research Chemist, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, Concord College, WV
William Pilkington, Treasurer, Financial Advisor, Ghent, WV
Ed Greenwell, Director of Tennessee chestnut projects, Electrical Engineer, Cookeville, TN