Free Lecture: Restoring the American Chestnut in Ontario

Date: May 08, 2022 at 14:30
Meeting Location: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81796938776?pwd=SHpTdTBhWG9uZ3BmSkMvMWVDY1FMQT09

American Chestnut was once common throughout North America but by 1940 the Chestnut was destroyed as a commercial species by Chestnut Blight.  Ron Casier, Chair of the Canadian Chestnut Council, is restoring an approximately twenty-acre woodlot on his farm for habitat to support Carolinian wildlife and to encourage endangered species.  This includes a one-acre research plot for the breeding of blight resistant American Chestnut.  Ron will introduce us to the American Chestnut and the efforts of the Canadian Chestnut Council to preserve the unique “Canadian” American Chestnut genome and breed a blight resistant American Chestnut for ecological and economic restoration.

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The Toronto Field Naturalists wish to acknowledge this land through which we walk. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississauga of the Credit River. Today it is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to be on this land.