American Chestnut Trees Restoration - Powell Land

Coming soon ...

An orchard of wild American Chestnut trees - with the goal of helping restore this tree to its native range.

These chestnuts are from various locations along the east coast - North Carolina, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine - and will help preserve the tree's surviving genetic diversity.

The orchard on the Powell Land is not intended to be permanent – we plan on collecting nuts from these trees and eventually returning the field to its original state.
 
There were once 4 billion American Chestnut trees in the Eastern US - but in the early 1900's an accidentally introduced pathogen quickly rendered this tree functionally extinct.

The trees in this orchard will eventually succumb to this disease – but they survive longer in an open orchard setting than in the forest.
 
For more information on the history of American Chestnut and on current restoration efforts - please go the official American Chestnut Foundation website here.

 
This orchard is a joint project of the Harvard Conservation Commission and members of the public.