Pennsylvania
TACF owns a farm in Jefferson County,
PA, portions of which were mined and reclaimed as pasture/hay
field in the 1980s. In 2002, TACF
volunteers began establishing a breeding orchard of
one-sixteenth Chinese, fifteen-sixteenth American chestnut seedlings on those
mined lands (Figure 1).
Growth of trees at that orchard has been good (Figure 2), perhaps in
part because the trees were fertilized.
In later plantings, planting holes were augered and refilled to reduce compaction,
and a small amount of forest soil was added to provide inocula of mycorhizzae.
It is currently believed that the orchard will be successful, and
TACF will be able to make selections and harvest nuts for the next
generation of breeding. Other
mined lands in Pennsylvania are also being planted to similar
orchards.
Western Kentucky and
Indiana
In 2004, reclamation specialists of
Peabody Energy Company began direct seeding backcross nuts
into mined land in Muhlenberg County in western KY. Subsequently, they have planted chestnuts
on mined land in southern Indiana.
In Kentucky, six plots were planted on land reclaimed
as pasture/hayfield, three ripped and three not ripped. Better growth occurred on the ripped
land. Additionally, one ripped
plot was fertilized with horse manure, and showed the best growth
of the plots at the location, perhaps also because brown, weathered sandstone
was the substrate (Figure 3), in contrast to the other plots. Chestnut growth has been good on the unfertilized,
ripped plots, but the trees are mildly chlorotic, probably due to lack of
nitrogen (Figure 4).