[bert]

I am johnny chestnut seed in East Tennessee. I have recruited volunteers to plant All American Chestnut seedlings here abouts.

I work with the American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation that operates out of Va Tech in Blacksburg.

There website is http://ipm.ppws.vt.edu/griffin/accf.html.

(Much of the web work is mine. I set up the original site years ago. Looks like it needs some work)

As in all things there is disagreement. The ACF is the work of one of Dr Griffins students. Dr Griffin and his wife and many other academics and volunteers are at ACCF in Blacksburg.

ACF believes the solution to reestablishing American Chestnuts is to cross breed with blight resistant asian trees. This is also the method of some at UT Knoxville.

Dr Griffin and ACCF are purists. They have taken seeds from a few blight resistant trees and produced new trees that are again crossed to produce other generations. The goal is to produce a blight resistant variety with all American genes. To accomplish the goal they rely on volunteers like me to plant trees and out of the thousands find the individuals with the best resistance. This strain will be "All American"

So far out of hundreds there are only 50 still growing in my area. Of those, 1 seems to have pretty good resistance.

I would be interested in your report with some more specifics, mountains, ridge, flatland, elevation, size approximate number, do they bloom, have nuts, largest tree diameter at brest height.

Freep mail me if interested.

[girlangler]

Bert,

I think you'll be interested in the old tree stumps and sprouts (small, producing trees too). After finding these burrs and nuts I did some research on the net, and am convinced I have a few American chestnuts here.

However, I am babysitting right now and this four year old is screaming at me to get off here and watch cartoons.

I got your message and will be back to you shortly. I am on the edge of the Cumberland Plateau, in the Cumberland mountains near the Tennessee/Kentucky border. I bookmarked your page, and want to say there is a lot of material on the net about chestnuts, but not enough pics for ID purposes.

I have a cup on my desk now, with burrs, shells, and nuts I gathered. I also have an email message in my mailbox from a researcher at (I thought Tenn. Tech, responding to my inquiry about chestnuts).

Gotta go, Sponge Bob is calling.