American Chestnut Interest

In April of this year (2016), the 3rd anniversary of this blog will come about.  It is interesting that prior to that month, there will be over 5000 views on here!  For folks to find my little ramblings about American chestnut trees in Louisville, Kentucky (and across the state), is pretty neat.  Even the demographics of the viewers is very interesting.  Here are the countries in which the top 5 viewer numbers come from:


1.  United States
2.  Russia
3.  France
4.  Ukraine
5.  Germany


The US views make up about 3/5 of the total views.  I wish that just 10% of those US viewers would consider joining The American Chestnut Foundation and help to bring this tree back to our woods in the Eastern US!  You can learn more at TACF Membership and right now until the end of March, if you join at the $250 level or higher, you will be eligible to win a hand-crafted American chestnut Tappan chair!  Find out more here:  Chair


It is not too early to begin thinking about springtime and flowers.  Towards the end of May and into June, look throughout Kentucky's woods for flowers that look like this:

These are male flowers (catkins) of the American chestnut tree.  Often, chestnut trees are the tallest trees in the woods, so when blooming on the side of a mountain or below a lookout point, they can readily be spotted.  Report your finds by following the directions found here:  http://www.acf.org/find_a_tree.php


Keep your spirits up during this late winter time.  Enjoy the warm, sunny days when they come and know that spring is on the way!  I even had a moquito on me a few days ago, so that is a sure sign of spring/summer!


Best regards!

Planting American Chestnut Trees

I took off early from work yesterday to help plant a "first-of-its-kind" American chestnut tree!  This was a Kentucky produced "B3F4" tree, which came from two Restoration Chestnut 1.0 parents growing at the Louisville Nature Center (See this Dec. 2014 post: First B3F4 Nuts from Kentucky ).  This particular nut was produced in 2014.  I harvested it, cold stratified it over the winter in moist peat moss, planted it into a half gallon container and grew it in my house throughout 2015.  In the early fall, I transferred it to my outdoor growing area so that it would "harden off" and go dormant.

Chestnut seedlings growing in a west facing window - 2015.

Hopefully, this special tree will grow well and show good blight resistance.  The parents of this seedling, along with the two other trees planted at the Louisville Nature Center in December, 2012, have grown very quickly (although the mother tree of the seedling has not grown as quickly as the father tree and the other two trees at the site).

Resistance-wise, neither the mother tree nor the father tree have shown signs of blight.  One of the other trees located at the planting showed signs of blight in the late winter/early spring of 2015.  The point of infection was mud packed and the tree did very well throughout the 2015 growing season.  I anticipate that when the mud packing materials are removed this spring, there will be no signs of blight at that particular spot.  If you want to learn more about mud packing blight cankars, look at this link:  http://masschestnut.org/mudpackingCankers.php

Stay tuned for upcoming announcements and chestnut activities within the Louisville area.  We need to do some display planting maintenance, support the early summer (May/June) pollination efforts across the state, and continue to spread the "chestnut word" to our neighbors, coworkers and friends.

Happy New Year!

West Louisville Tree Planting

KY-TACF and the Louisville Restoration Branch will be participating in the Brightside Community Tree Planting effort on November 7 in West Louisville.  Along with all of the other tree planting activities, several backcrossed American Chestnut trees will be planted at the Shawnee Branch Public Library.  Planting day details are below:

 

Hope to see you there with shovel in hand!

KY-TACF Annual Meeting, 2015

The Kentucky State Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation will be holding their annual meeting on August 15, 2015, at the Pine Mountain State Resort Park.  Make your plans to attend, as this is open to both members and non-members!

There will be a silent auction taking place as a fundraiser for the chapter, as well as an array of presentations concerning what is going on with the American chestnut in Kentucky at this time!

As additional information becomes available, I will update this posting to include it.

UPDATE:  The meeting will be taking place in the Ray Harm Room, beginning at 9:30 AM (Eastern Time) and should finish up around 3:30 PM.  Agenda can be found below.

Hope to see you there!

 

Annual Meeting

KENTUCKY CHAPTER

 

 Pine Mountain State Resort Park

Ray Harm Room

Saturday, August 15, 2015

9:30 AM to 3:30 PM

 

 

9:30 – 10:00			Snacks and Getting to Know Each Other	Ray Harm Room
10:00 - 10:15 AM			Introduction   Lynn Garrison, President of Kentucky Chapter	Ray Harm Room
10:15 - 10:30 AM			Election Officers and Board   Rex Mann	Ray Harm Room
10:30 - 11:00 AM			A National TACF Overview Thomas Saielli	Ray Harm Room
11:00 – 11:15 AM			Financial Report	Ray Harm Room
11:15 – 11:45			American Chestnut Breeding Program   Scott Friedhoff	Ray Harm Room
11:45 – 12:45 PM			Lunch
12:45– 1:00 PM			American Chestnut Programs in the Louisville Area Keith Chasteen	Ray Harm Room
1:00 – 1:15 PM                      Outreach                                                                                 Ray Harm Room
1:15 - 1:30 PM			Restoration plan for the American Chestnut   Rex Mann	Ray Harm Room
Collaborative Programs
1:30 – 1:45 PM			U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Keith Chasteen	Ray Harm Room
1:45 – 2:45 PM			Kentucky Army National Guard Orchard Kentucky Division of Forestry Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources The Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative Green Forest Work The Parklands of Floyd’s Fork Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest Eastern Kentucky University Ceremonial Planting Owsley County Schools Planting Pike County Schools Planting Home Place Planting Meades Landing Lisa Davis	Ray Harm Room
2:45			Silent Auction Ends	Ray Harm Room
3:00 PM			Adjourn
3:00 – 3:30 PM			Board Meeting	Ray Harm Room

We will have a silent auction which will include various items with many relating to the American chestnut. Included in the auction are two Restoration Chestnut Trees.

 

Note: We planned to have a field trip to Hensley Settlement in cooperation with the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park but unfortunately the road washed out during the heavy July rains and is closed for the rest of the year. We are looking for other field trip possibilities and if we successful we will tighten up the schedule to allow for the field trip.

                

 

Flowering

Chestnut trees are showing signs of flowering.  Is your tree getting ready to bloom?  Pollinating season is quickly coming!

 

Flowering Chinese chestnut tree.



I Can Dig It! - Transplanting Pure American Chestnut Sprouts

Although chestnut blight killed many (most) American chestnut trees throughout the historic range - from Maine to Mississippi - it did not kill the root systems of the trees.  This started the cycle of root sprouts coming up from these living root systems, growing to a certain point, then succumbing to the blight.  Occasionally, these sprouts will get large enough to produce nuts prior to getting and dying from the blight.

In 2013, some native American chestnut sprouts were found at Ft. Knox, KY, following some light thinning within a forested stand.  This thinning activity was done to improve habitat for threatened and endangered bats.  With the thinner tree canopy, more sunlight was allowed to hit the forest floor.  This light is what spurred these sprouts to quickly take off after many years of being suppressed.

The Kentucky Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation has partnered with Ft. Knox and the US Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District, at Green River Lake near Campbellsville, KY, to establish a location where stump sprouts can be relocated to in order to provide them full sunlight, water, nutrients and some limited blight prevention (fungicides, mud packing of cankers, etc).  The goal of this "Germplasm Conservation Orchard" is to grow this chestnut genetic source from Ft. Knox to the point of successful flowering where either pollen can be collected from these trees or pollen can be brought to these trees for controlled pollination.  The goal is to develop a new genetic line for the Chapter's backcross breeding program.

Earlier this month, TACF volunteers, KY State Forestry folks, Bernheim Forest folks and US Army Corps of Engineers employees converged on Ft. Knox in order to dig the known sprouts for transfer to Green River Lake.

 

On the same day that the sprouts were dug they were hauled to the orchard site and replanted there.

This photo by Sarah Mattingly, US Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District.

The newly planted trees quickly had protective fencing placed around them to keep deer from nibbling on the twigs.  In all, eight planting spots were filled within the orchard with stump sprouts.  Additional planting will occur as additional sprouts are found from within the "Knobs" physiographic region that either need to be relocated in order to protect or utilize them.  As well, found sprouts or trees may be able to be grafted and placed into the Green River Lake orchard.

It is anticipated that for many years even after a new genetic line is developed from these trees the orchard will produce a plethora of pure American chestnut nuts!  These can be used for test planting future orchard sites, can be stratified and grown or can be utilized for roasting on an open fire!

Tree Spacing

The Louisville Restoration Branch of the Kentucky Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation works with local governments and other entities to do American chestnut demonstration plantings, as well as other plantings.  Some examples in the Louisville area include the new planting with Metro Parks and Recreation in Des Pres Park.  Also, the first planting with Metro Parks is at the entry of the Louisville Nature Center in Joe Creason Park.  Within Jefferson Memorial Forest, there is a habitat planting that includes advanced American chestnut trees.  There is also a display planting at the Louisville Zoo.  Often, when a new planting opportunity comes along, one thing that is discussed is tree spacing.

American chestnut trees are best known for being a forest tree.  As such, they compete for light among the other trees growing around them and reach upward towards the light.  This competition encourages them to develop high reaching and limb free trunks or boles.

When doing our display, demonstration and restoration plantings, we like to keep the chestnut trees at a fairly tight spacing, say 15' to 20' apart.  These trees should get large, so this seems like very tight spacing.  However, this will encourage them to compete for light and grow upright, tall and somewhat "natural" looking like chestnut trees in our Kentucky forests 80+ years ago.

This historic photo shows the close proximity of American chestnut trees growing in the forest.

 

When grown in the open, not that this doesn't work, but it will lead the tree to develop more of a spreading crown.  Not that this is bad - actually, it creates a beautiful shade tree - but it won't show the tall, straight growth that chestnut trees are known for.

 



This open grown American chestnut shows its wide spreading crown.

 

Within Kentucky, we have a somewhat famous large surviving American chestnut tree known as the Adair tree.  This tree, found in Adair County, is growing in somewhat of a fence row between open pastures.  It exhibits an open crown form.

 

When I am asked about tree spacing for a new planting, I usually suggest 18' between trees.  Some folks suggest closer spacing, such as 15', with the thought that if a tree dies, the remaining trees are still at 30' spacing.  If a tree dies at 18' spacing, I'll do my best to get another one established in that spot before the others get so large that they overtop the spot.

 

Interested in planting chestnut trees on your property?  If so, please contact me by commenting on this blog.  Be sure to leave contact info, such as your email address.

 

Think spring!