Summer 2024 13 Other common avenues for initial involvement with TACF include identifying wild type and cultivated American chestnut trees and documenting their location. Find thorough information on species identification in TACF’s fact sheet series, specifically at tacf.org/fact-sheets/. Various legitimate citizen science databases are currently available online, and treesnap.org is the preferred one to use when logging information about the location and condition of chestnut trees in naturally occurring populations. In the managed landscape, however, things can be a bit more complex—especially species identification. Hybrid chestnuts are plentiful in the landscape, variably combining American (C. dentata), Chinese, (C. mollissima), Japanese (C. crenata), European (C. sativa), and other interfertile chestnut and chinquapin species. If you find a chestnut tree of uncertain ancestry in Virginia, you are eligible to send a leaf and twig sample to TACF National for identification. Specific instructions can be found at tacf.org/identification/. Other ways to engage directly with TACF include guided tours of Meadowview Research Farms—available by appointment only—or hosting a free screening of TACF’s documentary film, titled Clear Day Thunder: Rescuing the American Chestnut. Information pertinent to hosting a screening is available online at rescuingtheamericanchestnut.com. The restoration of the majestic American chestnut tree is as bold an endeavor as one will encounter in conservation science. Its engine, however, is the passion, commitment, and sweat of a community of countless volunteers, advocates, staff, and other leaders who shepherd it through the decades and, eventually centuries. Amid changing forests, changing climates, and complex economic landscapes, it is the social movement behind the return of the American chestnut that keeps the science on a path of progress and ensures that future generations will come to know these giants of the forest in their own way. Vasiliy Lakoba is Director of Research with The American Chestnut Foundation, based at Meadowview Research Farms in southwest Virginia. He holds a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech, where he studied interactions between biological invasions and other types of environmental change. His primary interests regarding the American chestnut are the socio-ecological dimensions of longterm species restoration. Lauren Kerwien is the Laboratory Manager at The American Chestnut Foundation’s Meadowview Research Farms. She holds a B.S. from the University of Vermont and an M.S. from Virginia Tech, with expertise in molecular genetics and microbiology. Her work with the American chestnut spans tree performance trials, host-pathogen interaction, and speed breeding optimization.
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