Identifying and collecting data on American chestnut trees along the Appalachian Trail

• A long-term study of the American chestnut tree
• Part of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s AT Mega-Transect Project
  • Engages the public in citizen-science efforts to collect data along the AT
  • Raising awareness of threats to the environmental health of the Appalachian Region.

  Two types of data are collected:  (1) total number of American chestnut trees three feet in height or taller within fifteen feet on either side of the trail and (2) location and description of large individual trees thirteen inches or greater in circumference at 4.5 feet above ground.
  
  The 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. 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 restore the American chestnut tree to its former place in the region’s forests by producing an otherwise American chestnut with the blight resistant characteristics of Asian chestnut.

Resources for Data Collectors

Future Use of Data Collected by Volunteers

Project Description

Master Naturalist Participation

Link to AT Journeys Article
by Mark and Betty Gatewood

Mark and Betty Gatewood maintain a section of the A.T. as volunteers with the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club. The trained at A.T. MEGA-Transect Chestnut Project data collectors in 2008, and have collected data on "their" part of the trail every summer since then. This terrific article shares some of their experiences.