The PGC Conservation Committee's project - "The Chestnut Chronicles" - has now been officially launched!

 

On Thursday, the 23rd of March, a small crew of committee members took on the task of potting up the dozen sprouted seeds we had received from Allen Nichols, the President of the New York State Chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation. (Read up on the monumental efforts to bring back the American Chestnut in the NY-TACF flyer attached.) Our project is part of the effort to plant as many wild-type American Chestnut trees as possible to preserve genetic diversity by cross-pollinating with blight-tolerant trees when they become commercially available.

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A dozen committee members have taken on the task of nurturing a seed, either for their own landscape or to be gifted to the community for posterity. We will chronicle the progress of our seeds as they first form their stems, bud and leaf out, and then shed their leaves for winter dormancy. When they emerge again in Spring 2024, they will be ready for planting in the wild. And we will continue to track the seedlings as they mature. Once the blight resistant variety is available, we hope to acquire and add to the mix.