SAVING THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT
May, 2015: Last weekend, we visited friends of ours, the Weavers (we met them when all of our kids were in the Montessori Pre-school together). Greg Weaver is passionate about helping to bring back the American Chestnut. He's part of a breeding program to develop the "New American Chestnut," which will be 15/16ths American and 1/16th Chinese Chestnut. That 1/16th is enough to give the American variant resistance to the Chestnut Blight that wiped out all of the pure American Chestnuts back in the 1930s. His trees are doing well enough that scientists from the American Chestnut Society have visited his farm, south of Franklin, and harvested nuts from some of his trees, to use in future cross-breeding programs. These pics, which also show their farm, generally, will give you an idea of the progress Greg has been making in raising Blight-resistant American Chestnuts... NOTE: Be sure to read the captions below each photo!