In the first 40 years of the 20th century, blight destroyed 3.5 billion American Chestnuts. What had been the most important tree in our Eastern forest was reduced to insignificance. No comparable devastation of a species exists in recorded history.
In the 1970's, ACCF located American Chestnut survivors of the original blight epidemic and grafted them into ACCF plots for blight resistance testing.
Two of the best American Chestnut trees were Gault and Floyd.
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Gault Tree Coshocton County, Ohio |
Floyd Tree Floyd County, Virginia |
ACCF intercrossed these and other chestnuts which our tests identified and planted the progeny in all-American chestnut orchards (1982).
ACCF priorities include the development of blight-resistant, all-American chestnuts and economical biological control measures against chestnut blight in the forest environment.
To join our efforts contact Ed Greenwell [ed@accf-online.org]
