12 VIRGINIA FORESTS Lesesne State Forest in Nelson County, Va., is the site of the Virginia Department of Forestry’s decade’s long chestnut breeding program, drawing on American, Chinese, and Japanese chestnut germplasm. With ten acres of mature hybrid canopy as well as partly resistant American chestnut conservation orchards and younger Chinese American hybrid plantings, Lesesne offers myriad opportunities for volunteers and professional researchers alike. In the image above, Dr. Abhilash Chandel of Virginia Tech operates a drone with multispectral imaging capabilities at Lesesne to collect one of several data timepoints which will be used to build statistical models differentiating trees in high throughput phenotyping. chapter is governed by a board of directors and sets its tree improvement, reintroduction, and outreach plans in varying degrees of coordination with TACF National. The latter facilitates coordination within and among state chapter efforts through a committed team of regional staff. Four Regional Science Coordinators (RSCs)— overseeing the New England, North-Central, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern regions—work closely with volunteers to plan and execute each season’s breeding priorities, new planting establishment, management and maintenance of existing plantings, as well as collection of genotypic and phenotypic data on hundreds of seedlings and mature trees. Meanwhile, Northern and Southern Regional Outreach Coordinators (ROCs) work with chapter members and RSCs to track, formalize, and advance recruitment, outreach, and smooth communication within and across chapters and regions. This critical staff infrastructure ensures the continuation of citizen science momentum, partnership with local communities, and the passage of the American chestnut restoration mission from generation to generation. Volunteer chapters and the citizen scientists that comprise them have different areas of focus depending on their regional priorities. Some heavily emphasize wild type germplasm conservation for genetic diversity, others emphasize breeding orchards and blight resistance assays. Still others focus on maintaining and harvesting from seed orchards of advance hybrid material or establishing reintroduction populations in forested sites. Some chapters in the far southern part of the range are active in tracking the progeny of hybrid trees that show intermediate resistance to PRR, the second major disease affecting American chestnuts, especially in the South but increasingly in the Mid-Atlantic and even into parts of the coastal Northeast. Some chapters collaborate with state land grant institutions while others largely rely on private lands and local networks. Get Involved with American Chestnut Restoration Interested in joining the effort to restore the iconic American chestnut tree in Virginia? Virginia residents have a variety of avenues available for getting involved in chestnut tree improvement, experimental plantings, building public awareness, and connecting with like-minded peers at any level of time commitment. The first thing to note is that the historic and future range of the American chestnut tree is overwhelmingly in the Piedmont and Appalachian Mountain regions, both nationwide and in Virginia specifically. This means that tree planting, testing, and monitoring activity is concentrated in the portion of Virginia that lies west of Interstate 95, and especially to the west of U.S. Route 29. The American chestnut is also a habitat specialist, which means that it has rather strict site requirements within the broad physiographic regions where it is present. It prefers well-draining, acidic soils, especially those derived from sandstone bedrock rather than limestone. Some of the finest American chestnut habitats are Appalachian ridgetops and summits, where species like chestnut oak (Quercus Montana Willd), white pine (Pinus strobus L.), sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum (L.) DC.), and lowbush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton) abound. Therefore, if you’re wondering whether a particular parcel of land would be suitable for a new chestnut planting, take a close look at the soils, elevation, and existing vegetation on site. To learn about existing efforts underway in Virginia, the best first step is to visit the TACF website (tacf.org) and connect with the Virginia chapter. Relevant contact information is available to engage with chapter leadership, reading materials tracking past and current work, as well as chapter and national organization news. At a glance, you will also be able to take stock of the closest experimental orchards to your location.
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