The University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources has reached an agreement with The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) to develop a chestnut tree orchard at the Georgia Mountain Research and Education Center in Union County, Georgia.

Coming on the heels of the exciting discovery of a small grove of mature American chestnut trees near Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park by Georgia Department of Natural Resources senior wildlife biologist Nathan Klaus, this agreement is confirmation by top researchers at UGA and TACF that they are achieving promising results that could one day see the revival of this magnificent and once heavily populated eastern U.S. tree.

“This agreement will allow us to take the next research step toward creating blight resistant American chestnut trees,” said Dr. Scott Merkle, professor of Forest Biology and chestnut expert at The University of Georgia. “If things work out as we hope, there may be a future for this great tree in its native habitat.”

It is estimated by many experts that the American Chestnut tree provided up to fifty percent of the tree cover along the Appalachian Mountain chain before an Asian blight disease was introduced to the east coast early in the 20th Century. The majestic tree, which frequently stood more than 100 feet tall, had all but vanished by the 1950’s.

While small saplings can still be found in the southern Appalachian Mountains, the blight attacks and kills the tree before it can reach any sort of mature age, according to Dr. Merkle. This cooperative agreement will help forest biologists develop blight resistant chestnut trees that will hopefully be strong enough to be successfully reintroduced into the forests of the southern Appalachians in the near future.

For more information about the history of the American Chestnut Tree, and the latest research successes creating blight resistant populations, visit The American Chestnut Foundation website at www.acf.org. The activities of the Georgia Chapter of TACF can be viewed at www.gatacf.org.