eSprout |  September 2016
September 30: Deadline to Register for TACF's Board & Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY
TACF will hold its Board & Annual Meeting on Thursday, November 10 - Saturday, November 12. Board meetings will run concurrently with public sessions. To register, simply call the National office at 828-281-0047 by September 30.
 
Speakers and educational sessions for the general public and TACF members will be held Friday, November 11. Featured speakers are Dr. Todd F. Hutchinson, Research Ecologist, and Jeremy Schmutz, Faculty Investigator for HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. There will also be two public education sessions: How to Grow Chestnuts, presented by Scott Freidhof, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources; and Using American chestnut root collar sprouts to establish germplasm orchards, presented by Keith Chasteen, US Army Corps of Engineers. Everyone is invited to attend the awards dinner on Friday evening from 6:00 - 9:00 PM. Click here to view the full schedule of Friday's events.
Sunday, October 9, 10:30 AM - 7:30 PM, Rowlesburg, WV 
There will be lots to see and do at this year's 9th Annual West Virginia Chestnut Festival. Enjoy games, food, music, and browsing a variety of chestnut vendors selling crafts and wares. Later in the day, a program will be offered with speakers Maggie DeWeirdt who will do a chestnut cooking demonstration, then Cameron Stauder, a M.S. candidate who will speak about the role of tree resistance and pathogen virulence in the chestnut blight disease. A gala banquet will take place in the evening that will feature a wine tasting, a chestnut-themed dinner, the crowning of the 9th Annual Mr. & Madame Chestnut, and chestnut researcher, Dr. Don Kines, will deliver the keynote address. For the full schedule, click here.
7th Annual Restoration Celebration: Come See Us Grow!
Saturday, October 22, 1 - 5 PM, Meadowview, VA
Take a hayride through the chestnut orchard, try some roasted chestnuts, listen to live music, drink a chestnut beer, and learn about TACF's current restoration efforts. Join us on Saturday, October 22 at the Glenn C. Price Research Laboratory at Meadowview Farms in Virginia for the celebration! Restoration chestnuts 1.0 will be raffled along with merchandise contributed by local merchants. Admission is FREE so come out and enjoy the fun! 
Brooklyn Students Participate in Saving the Chestnut
Check out the American chestnut artwork by 4th grader Maisie Carroll and 2nd grader Ewan Carroll, from Public School (PS) 321 in Brooklyn, NY. The school is caring for two chestnut trees that have been planted on its campus. The nuts received by PS 321 were among the first "Brooklyn born" American chestnut in over one hundred years. These nuts came from native American chestnuts planted in Prospect Park in 2004. The nuts were collected from bags that were placed over the burs in 2015 to prevent squirrels from getting to them first. Keep reading to learn about the school's goal for these two trees.
SUNY-ESF Ranks #2 of America's Greenest Colleges
Sierra, the magazine of the Sierra Club has released its 10th annual list of America's greenest colleges. Published in this year's September/October 2016 issue, SUNY-ESF came in at #2!  The list includes more than 200 colleges and universities in America that work to protect the planet. According to Sierra, SUNY-ESF leaped 102 spots from its place in last year's ranking, improving markedly in the categories of water, innovation, and planning. Many students are engaged in campus greening efforts, and 25 percent of classes are sustainability-related, netting SUNY-ESF a high academics score too. Clinching its rise, the school announced last December that it would no longer include fossil fuel companies in its endowment portfolio. TACF and the New York state chapter congratulates SUNY-ESF on this achievement!
Planting & Education Successes in Indiana
TACF's Indiana chapter has provided direct plantings and valuable educational opportunities this year. Since last April the chapter has coordinated with several organizations and schools to provide assistance in planting Indiana sourced American chestnut, BC3F2 trees, and Restoration 1.0 trees provided by TACF. They've managed numerous new plantings and led educational hikes. The chapter continues to work on new and exciting projects, encouraging participation from community, youth, and building new partnerships.
By Samantha Bowers
TACF staff attended a Leadership Asheville luncheon on August 24th with Great Smoky Mountains National Park Chief Cassius Cash who addressed an enthusiastic crowd in Asheville in celebration of the National Park Service's centennial anniversary. Cash is the new superintendent of America's most-visited national park. Today, he oversees a National Park which spans a half-million wilderness acres on the North Carolina-Tennessee border and is visited by more than 10 million people each year. It's a big challenge, but he calls it his dream job.

Superintendent Cash highlighted the need to engage youth in conservation efforts to secure the second century of national parks. He stated that the next generation are our next advocates. Following his speech, he mentioned that he was grateful to have met TACF's CEO, Lisa Thomson.

Gregments Episode 1: Saving the Tree of Life

Greg LeClair, a student from Unity College (new partner of TACF's Maine chapter) recently produced an educational video - Saving the Tree of Life - about how the loss of the American chestnut also affects other species, like animals. 
 
This video is the first episode in a series he's creating called "GregmentsBio Conservation." Each episode will explore a topic about protecting the planet's wildlife and environment. This specific episode is all about protecting the environment to protect wildlife, told through the American chestnut tree.   
September 17 / PA/NJ Chapter: American Chestnut Tree Planting / Lake Hopatcong Train Station, Landing Rd Landing, NJ / Come celebrate the unveiling of new seedlings to be planted in a native garden at the Lake Hopatcong Train Station / For more information, visit this link / 2:00 - 4:00 PM


October 1 / MD Chapter: Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) Campfire and Watershed Fair / Brighton Dam, Brookeville, MD / For more information, email jcurtis850@gmail.com / Fair: 4:00 - 6:00 P.M.; Campfire: 6:00 - 7:30 P.M.

October 8 / MD Chapter: MD - CMREC Open House / 4240 Folly Quarter Road, Ellicott City, MD / College of Agriculture & Natural Resources (AGNR) Open House; MD chapter will have a booth / For more information, email jcurtis850@gmail.com / 10:00 A.M. - 3:00 P.M.

October 9 / WV Chapter: 9th Annual West Virginia Chestnut Festival / Rowlesburg, WV / For more information, click here / 10:30 A.M. - 7:30 P.M. 

October 15 / ME Chapter: Maine Chapter Annual Meeting / For more information, email brian.roth@maine.edu / 10:00 A.M. - 1:30 P.M.

October 15 / MD Chapter: Maryland Annual Meeting / Urbana Regional Library and Senior Center, 9020 Amelung St, Frederick, MD / For more information, email jcurtis850@gmail.com / 11:00 A.M. - 1:00 P.M.
 
October 22 / 7th Annual Chestnut Restoration Celebration sponsored by the Southwest Virginia Branch of TACF / Glenn C. Price Research Lab at Meadowview Research Farms / For more information, contact Dick Olson (olson627@juno.com/276-466-3130) / 1:00 - 5:00 P.M.

October 28 / VA Chapter:  "Genomics and American Chestnut Restoration:  New Tools to Identify and Increase Disease Resistance" / Blacksburg Library Community Room, 200 Miller Street, Blacksburg, VA / 1:00 - 3:30 P.M. (with additional time available for questions after presentations)

October 29 / PA/NJ Chapter: Fall Member Meeting / Weiser Resource Management Center, Aristes, PA / For more information, email jnajjar29@gmail.com / 9:30 A.M. - 3:00 P.M.

October 29 / MA Chapter: MA/RI-TACF Autumn Quarterly Meetings / For more information, email yvonne.federowicz@gmail.com
 
SAVE THE DATE: 

November 11 / TACF Annual Meeting / Embassy Suites by Hilton / 501 South 4th Street, Louisville, KY  40202
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Details about all of these TACF events (and more) are available on our website calendar at: http://www.acf.org/calendar.php. 
The American Chestnut Foundation
50 North Merrimon Ave, Suite 115
Asheville, NC 28804
(828) 281-0047
               
The mission of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) is to restore the American chestnut tree to our eastern woodlands to benefit our environment, our wildlife, and our society.

TACF is a 501(c)(3) conservation organization headquartered in Asheville, NC. To learn about TACF and its national breeding program, visit www.acf.org. To join the effort to restore the American chestnut tree, visit www.acf.org/join.php.