Liz Nye’s article Restoring Giants to the Forest was published on the New England Botanic Garden’s website in November of 2023. The article can be read in full on the New England Botanic Garden’s website.
The article celebrates the planting of 20 naturally blight-resistant American chestnut trees on the Garden’s property. The planting happened in October 2023 with a group of Garden staff and two volunteers, Lois Breault-Melican and her husband Denis Melican of Spencer, MA. Staff will monitor the trees and report annually on their progress.
Lois and Denis had grown the trees from seeds, which is something they do every year as members of the American Chestnut Cooperators’ Foundation (ACCF).
What is the American Chestnut Cooperator’s Foundation (ACCF)?
A blight decimated the American chestnut tree in the early twentieth century. The ACCF is a Virginia-based non-profit that aims to restore blight-resistant American chestnut trees in eastern hardwood forests. In the 1970s the ACCF discovered a surviving population of trees in Virginia and have spent decades growing, culling, and breeding mature, naturally blight-resistant trees that are offsprings of those trees, including the trees being planted at the Garden. These 100% American chestnut trees are bred for resistance using traditional backcrossing methods and are not hybirds or made from genetic engineering. The tree’s natural resistance to the blight will protect them from succumbing to the blight. The goal is for the seedlings to pass their resistance on to another generation of trees.
Who are Lois Breault-Melican and Denis Melican?
The Melicans have spent 20 years contributing to chestnut restoration efforts. They both served as board members of the Massachusetts/Rhode Island chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF), and Lois served as chapter president for many of those years. The Melican’s left the TACF when the TACF decided to focus on genetically modifying trees for blight resistance instead of focusing on backcross breeding. The conservation community is divided when it comes to the topic of genetically modified trees. TACF’s transgenic American chestnut, a tree known as Darling 58, claims to have enhanced blight tolerance due to the addition of one gene inserted from a species of wheat. The federal government is currently reviewing the Darling 58 for deregulation. Some in the conservation community, including the Melicans, are very uncomfortable with the prospect of this tree being planted in natural settings as part of chestnut restoration efforts.
Note: Lois Breault-Melican and Denis Melican are part of the Campaign to STOP GE trees.
Additional Note: The Campaign to STOP GE Trees recently put out a press release about the Genetically Engineered American Chestnut tree.
The article also included the following references and additional resources
- Baxter, B. N. (2009). An oral history of the American Chestnut in southern Appalachia (thesis).
- Darling 58. The American Chestnut Foundation. (2023, November 14).
- Davis, D. E. (2021). The American Chestnut: An environmental history. The University of Georgia Press.
- Faison, E., & Foster, D. (2014, October 15). Did American Chestnut Really Dominate the Eastern Forest? Arnoldia.
- Kapoor, M. L. (2023, September 13). The American chestnut tree is coming back. Who is it for? Grist.
- #plantofthemonth: American Chestnut. McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. (2021, October 28).
- Regulatory status. ESF. (n.d.).
- Smolker, R., & Petermann, A. (2019, June 12). GE American chestnut — restoration of a beloved species or trojan horse for tree biotechnology? Earth Island Journal.
