In 2008, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) and the American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) launched a volunteer-based pilot project to document the presence of American chestnuts along the Appalachian Trail. The survey of trees also works to identify the locations of flowering chestnut trees to aid chestnut breeding and restoration programs.
The American chestnut played a key role in forests throughout Appalachia before being devastated by a blight fungus imported with Asian chestnut trees in the early twentieth century. The goal of this project is to gather information on the location and status of surviving remnants of the population, and gain insight on the environmental variables that affect the growth and survival of chestnut trees.
Data on large individual trees with the potential to produce flowers will assist TACF in increasing the genetic diversity of its backcross breeding program, which aims to produce an American chestnut with the blight-resistant characteristics of an Asian chestnut. Data on the density and location of American chestnut trees will be used to determine the environmental variables that affect the growth and survival of chestnut trees, which will help inform future reintroduction of blight-resistant American Chestnut trees in the Appalachian region.
Two types of data are collected:
- Total number of American chestnut trees three feet in height or taller within fifteen feet on either side of the trail, per defined trail segment
- Location and description of large individual trees thirteen inches or greater in circumference at 4.5 feet above ground, per defined trail segment
Read more information on the ATC’s partnership with the American Chestnut Foundation.