American Chestnut restoration

MILFORD - Come and learn about the history of the chestnut blight and what’s being done to reverse it. The Pike County Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) will host a presentation by Sara Fitzsimmons, executive director of the PA Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation. Her program will cover the characteristics of the tree, wildlife interactions, and the program scientists created to bring the tree back from the 1904 blight, including efforts in Pike County to locate trees to include in the breeding program. This special presentation will be held Aug. 25 at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Pike County Conservation District building on state Route 402. Fitzsimmons will give a slide show and review a controlled pollination program on surviving American chestnuts for blight resistance. Prior to 1910, the American Chestnut was the dominant forest tree in many areas of the Poconos and significant component of our forests that provided highly nutritious food for wildlife with its nut crop when a fungus, accidentally introduced here from imported Asian chestnut trees, swept through the American chestnut population killing billions with blight. Local efforts to make the American chestnuts blight resistant are supported by Pike County QDMA members, PPL by donation of a bucket truck and crew to reach larger trees, Blooming Grove Hunting & Fishing Club, and the Milford Experimental Forest. For info. on the program, call Robin 570-857-1072 or Michele 570-226-8220.