{"id":18533,"date":"2011-11-21T21:57:57","date_gmt":"2011-11-21T21:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/162.217.168.59\/?p=18533"},"modified":"2023-03-22T16:24:53","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T20:24:53","slug":"sfi-grant-supports-manual-to-assist-amchestnut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forests.org\/fr\/sfi-grant-supports-manual-to-assist-amchestnut\/","title":{"rendered":"SFI Grant Supports Manual to Assist American Chestnut Restoration"},"content":{"rendered":"

ASHEVILLE, NC<\/strong> \u2013 The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) has released an easy-to-read best management\u00a0practices manual for all landowners, including orchard managers, professional growers, forest landowners, or amateur\u00a0enthusiasts, so they can help restore American chestnut trees. The manual is an easy-to-read guide that outlines best\u00a0practices for planting and raising chestnut trees, including site preparation, fertilization, deer and pest management,\u00a0identifying and treating diseases, and more. The goal of the guide is to help planters of all types significantly improve\u00a0the success rate of their chestnut plantings.<\/p>\n

The manual is part of a project funded through the Sustainable Forestry Initiative\u00ae (SFI\u00ae) Conservation and Community\u00a0Partnerships Grant Program, which led to the first plantings of some of the most advanced blight-resistant American\u00a0chestnuts in the southeastern United States. Earlier this year, seedlings were planted on lands owned by SFI program\u00a0participants MeadWestvaco and Georgia Pacific. Quality Deer Management Association and the Pennsylvania\u00a0Department of Conservation and Natural Resources also helped with the manual production.<\/p>\n

The American chestnut once produced high-value wood products, such as furniture and rail ties, and was a valuable\u00a0food source in the Appalachian hardwood forest ecosystem for a wide variety of wildlife from bears to birds. An\u00a0estimated four billion trees were lost to an exotic, Asian, fungal disease (chestnut blight) during the first half of the 20th\u00a0century.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will need to plant a lot of trees if we are to eventually restore the American chestnut to its former range,\u201d TACF\u00a0President and CEO Bryan J. Burhans said today. \u201cThe manual provides advice so landowners can work with us, and the\u00a0SFI grant also lets us create a web-based database so volunteers and partners can track their progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough projects like this, our conservation grant program is bringing together partners to advance knowledge about\u00a0forest management and improve natural biodiversity and wildlife habitat,\u201d said SFI President and CEO Kathy Abusow.\u00a0\u201cSFI is the only forest certification program in North America that requires support for forest research activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

SFI Inc., an independent third-party forest certification program, has invested $1.2 million to date through its grant\u00a0program to foster partnerships between organizations interested in improving forest management in the United States\u00a0and Canada, and responsible procurement globally. TACF will receive a total of $60,000 over two years.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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