History of The American Chestnut Foundation

The return of the American chestnut to its former native range in the Appalachian hardwood forest ecosystem is a major restoration project that requires a multi-faceted effort involving members and volunteers, scientific research, sustained funding, and most importantly, a sense of the past and a hope for the future.

The history of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) chronicles the ongoing pursuit of a fundamental goal: to develop a blight-resistant American chestnut tree via scientific research and breeding, and to restore the tree to its native forests along the eastern United States.

TACF was founded in 1983 by prominent plant scientists and laypersons who recognized the severe impact of the American chestnut tree’s demise on the local economy of rural communities and the ecology of forests within the tree’s native range. The American chestnut tree range covered an estimated 180 million acres of eastern woodlands from Maine to Alabama, and from the Piedmont west to the Ohio Valley, until succumbing to a lethal 1-2 punch of disease infections from Phytophthora root rot (Phytophthora cinnamomi) and the chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica) fungus during the the 19th and 20th centuries respectively. An estimated four billion American chestnuts grew within this range, sometimes in dense stands, making up 25% – 50% of the trees in those locations.

In 1989, TACF established the Wagner Research Farm, a breeding station in Meadowview, Virginia, to execute the backcross breeding method developed by Philip Rutter, Dr. David French, and the late Dr. Charles Burnham, three of TACF’s founding scientists. These three wrote the first important paper about the breeding program (see Breeding Blight Resistant Chestnuts). The goal was to breed blight resistance from the Chinese chestnut tree into the American chestnut tree, while maintaining the American chestnut’s characteristics.

TACF’s breeding program began by crossing Chinese chestnut trees, which are naturally resistant to the blight, with their American cousins. The result was trees that were 50% American, 50% Chinese. These trees were then backcrossed to the American species, resulting in trees that were 75% American. The procedure was repeated to produce an American chestnut tree that retains no Chinese characteristics other than blight resistance. Mary Belle Price donated a second research farm to the Foundation in 1995, in memory of her late husband, Glenn C. Price, a strong supporter of TACF. A third Meadowview farm was purchased in 2002, and a fourth in 2006. Today, these are collectively known as Meadowview Research Farms and remain the backbone of TACF’s backcross research efforts.

Alongside traditional breeding efforts, TACF has funded and participated in research to control the blight fungus. Partners at WVU, the University of Maryland, and others have worked to identify and deploy methods outside of host-originated resistance that will stop pathogens from killing American chestnuts. Since 2012, TACF has also funded and actively engaged in modern biotech efforts to increase disease resistance in American chestnuts. These efforts include transgenics, cisgenics, gene editing, and other modern technologies. Read more about our integrated research efforts on the Science Strategies page.

TACF is a non-profit organization that serves as a hub for scientific research, implementation, and optimization of silvicultural and forestry techniques, as well as education and outreach about forest health restoration across the United States. TACF is forging a template that can be applied to the restoration of other native forest tree species.