Mayland Community College in Spruce Pine is preparing to become a test site for American chestnut trees that have been genetically modified to resist the fungal blight that nearly wiped out the species early in the last century. Eron Thiele, Coordinator of the Mayland Earth to Sky Park, will discuss the partnership that has been formed with the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), in New York, where William Powell directs the American Chestnut Research & Restoration Project.

The goal of the partnership is to create an orchard of trees that are adapted to our own southern Appalachian region. The work in New York is undertaken in cooperation with the USDA and is different from earlier efforts to cross-breed the American species with the blight-resistant Chinese species. Since the 1980s many hybrid trees have been planted throughout the eastern U.S. Eron is a graduate of Davidson College and East Carolina University. He has worked for 10 years in silviculture and forestry, is currently employed at Mayland Community College and the MAY Coalition, and continues to enjoy a variety of tree-based activities.

Ben Jarret of the American Chestnut Foundation will be discussing the status of The Foundation’s backcross breeding program, which utilizes traditional breeding methods to incorporate tolerance to the Chestnut blight fungus into a large population of American/Chinese chestnut hybrids. He will discuss a secondary pathogen affecting American chestnut, Phytophthora Root Rot which is a  soilborne pathogen that kills the roots of American chestnut trees that are also being bred for tolerance. Lastly, Ben will discuss germplasm conservation and the work being done to conserve trees from the edges of the range that are very unique genetically and endangered from being lost due to climate change.

Ben Jarrett is the Southern Regional Science Coordinator for The American Chestnut Foundation. Ben's primary role is to assist and guide the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama  chapters in their science endeavors working towards the restoration of American Chestnut. Ben was a Virginia resident and received his undergraduate degree in Environmental Science from University of Virginia, where he interned for The American Chestnut Foundation for over a year working in Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia. In 2015, he left Virginia to work across the country as a project manager for medical software company, Epic Systems. In July 2017, Ben re-joined The American Chestnut Foundation at the National Headquarters in Asheville, NC.