It may be purely my own perception - I'm a lapsed ACCF member, and have friends who are active leaders in ACF - but ACCF seems to be a very loosely-associated group operating principally on volunteer labor and 'dues', while ACF seems to have a more well-developed structure and more funding. They're not necessarily working at cross purposes, but I'm not sure how much cooperation, if any, takes place between the two groups. It may be too great a philosophical difference - kind of like the gulf between purist 'organic' gardeners, and those who don't eschew the use of 'chemical' fertilizers/pesticides, etc. In a similar vein, the butternight blight/canker disease which has been devastating native butternuts has already revealed the benefit of infusion of Oriental germplasm. Genetic testing in the last few years has revealed that some of the named variety 'butternuts', which have been commercially propagated for decades, are in actuality, hybrids of butternut with the Japanese walnut, J.ailantifolia or its budsport, the heartnut. So...it may be, that in order for us to reintroduce these former denizens of the forest and have them reproduce reliably in the presence of these introduced pathogens, some non-native germplasm may be necessary, though the technological breakthrough of inserting resistance genes from other species may give a tremendous boost to speeding up the process. The next question, though, is, can species like the American chestnut and butternut reclaim their former niche, which has since been occupied by other species since their trip to the brink of extinction?

Thought some of you might enjoy reading this! Rare chestnut tree still survives in Ohio State official let it slip that one mature tree stands in Ohio; its exact location is protected. Staff and Wire Reports Tuesday, March 25, 2008 SANDUSKY For about seven years, the state's natural resources leaders have harbored a secret. They still won't reveal the exact location of it or allow outsiders to see it. This Ohio treasure's existence was closely guarded until last week when the director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources revealed that a full-size American Chestnut tree still stands in a marsh near Lake Erie, the Sandusky Register reported recently. For tree experts, it's a big deal. American chestnuts that grew up to 120 feet once accounted for about 25 percent of the forests in the eastern half of North America until a fungus wiped out all but a few. 'They are often referred to as the redwood of the East because of their tremendous size,' Gary Obermiller, a regional manager for the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves. The fungus was first detected in 1904 in trees in New York City, and by 1950 some 3.5 billion trees about 90 percent of the species were dead. Only a few trees had resistance to the fungus and survived. In Ohio, most American chestnut trees were found in the eastern half of the state. In August, the Dayton Daily News reported on the existence of a stand of American chestnuts anchored in a working sandstone quarry in Braceville Twp., Trumbull County, just west of Warren near the Mahoning River. The specimens that sit on a standstone knob are a handful, the tallest reaching 75 feet. According to the Register, the state's largest existing chestnut tree known only to a few until last week is in Sheldon Marsh, a 465-acre state nature preserve about midway between Toledo and Cleveland. The tree stands 89 feet tall and has a 5-foot circumference. 'To our knowledge, we don't have any that come close to this size,' Obermiller said. Most surviving chestnut trees are small, sprouting from the roots of trees killed by the fungus. Steve Maurer, the new chief of Natural Areas and Preserves, decided the public should be told about the tree, Obermiller said. 'He realized this was a very special tree,' Obermiller said. American Chestnut facts American chestnut trees once made up about 25 percent of forests in eastern North America. The trees grew up to 120 feet tall and lived up to 600 years. Its wood was valuable because it was straight, light and rot-resistant. A fungus that eventually wiped out most of the trees was first found in 1904 in New York. All American Chestnut trees in New York City were dead by 1912. By 1950 about 3.5 billion trees about 90 percent of the species were dead

The college is not a secret, its SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, where I am currently finishing my undergrad. I've gotten to know some of the professors working on this project over the years and they have been working very hard on getting this to be a success and are very friendly people. I took a tissue culture course that was taught by some of the people working on the project and got to see firsthand some of the laboratory difficulties and challenges that had to be overcome to make it work. Elm grows like a weed in terms of micropropagation but chestnut is an absolute nightmare! Resin- I beleive the gene used in the chestnut project came from a species of Wheat that just happened to have some sort of natural mechanism for fighting a similar pathogen, and it happened to work. There may in fact be a group of genes being used, I have no formal training in genetics and was never introduced to that aspect of the project. For the elms I beleive this is the case, as there are several different diseases attacking them that needed to be addressed (i.e. elmy yellows, blight). I don't know too much about that project, although as part of the field trials several of the "immune" plants were planted in a group with "baseline" american elms in front of our campus library. they are monitored 24 hours a day for both security and to compare their growth to the normal seedling elms. Only the professors know which is which. Some of the biogengineered elms come from a few plants that were found thriving in the nearby solvay wastebeds in absolutely atrocious, dry, polluted, compacted conditions- the idea being that our trees should be quite urban-tolerant!

YEah, look up "hypovirulence". Where are you located? If you're in an area with arid summers (i.e. the American WEst), you would have much more luck. The fungus has a lot of trouble producing it's tiny "mushrooms" (conidiophores) without heat AND humidity. I have seen 150 year old PURE AMERICAN chestnuts in Siskiyou County, Ca. that are thriving, where humidity is never more than 30% on 98 degree days. I have some seed from a naturalized grove that established itself on a clear cut near EUgene, Oregon I could send you, but it is most likely not pure American. I believe it might be EUropean/hybrid of some sort. Lawyer nursery sells seed of American Chestnut from a grove that survives in Michigan. Also, Cold STream Farm supposedly sells bare-root trees, they are located in Michigan. If you really are interested in American Chestnut, I would suggest reading Susan Freinkel's book "American Chestnut - The life, death and rebirth of a perfect tree". Amazing how the Forest Service helped knock this species closer to the edge of oblivion by declaring a policy of cutting ALL chestnut trees, living and dead. I believe that they figured any trees that weren't dead soon would be, so best to salvage the timber. They probably eradicated many trees that had some blight-resistant genes. Aside from working for the lumber companies and introducing exotic diseases (i.e. white pine blister rust) into the country, I guess they do SOME good once in a while...(?)