| A.T. MEGA-Transect Chestnut Project |
Initiated in 2008 after a year of collaborative planning by scientists, volunteers and staff of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and The American Chestnut Foundation, the Appalachian Trail MEGA-Transect is a long term scientific study of population density and survival of the remaining American chestnut trees within the A.T. corridor. Volunteers are trained to collect data on remaining American chestnut trees growing along the Appalachian Trail.
This data will contribute to understanding the status of surviving remnants of a species that played a key role in forests throughout Appalachia before being devastated by a blight fungus imported with Asian chestnut trees in the early Twentieth Century. Study of this data will inform efforts to restore the American chestnut to its former range. Data on large individual trees with the potential to produce flowers will assist TACF in increasing the genetic diversity of its backcross breeding program, which is intended to produce blight-resistant trees with sufficient American chestnut character for use in restoring the American chestnut tree to its former place in the region’s forests.
2008 Data and TACF Journal Article
