The American Chestnut Foundation

Our Mission

The American Chestnut Foundation has one simple goal: to restore the American chestnut to its native forests. Destroyed by an imported blight many consider the worst environmental disaster of the twentieth century, the American chestnut was virtually eliminated from the eastern hardwood forest between 1904 and 1940. With its loss, wildlife populations plummeted; never to return to former levels. With recent developments in genetics, there is promise that this critically important wildlife food source and timber tree will again become part of our natural heritage. To make this possibility a reality, a group of prominent scientists, in 1983, established the non-profit research-oriented American Chestnut Foundation (TACF). The Foundation's mission is simple: to restore the American chestnut as an integral part of the eastern forest ecosystem. TACF is employing traditional plant breeding techniques, backed by advanced research methods, to develop a blight resistant American chestnut tree. TACF is restoring a species - and in the process, creating a template for restoration of other tree and plant species.