EXCERPT FROM PRESS RELEASE

Asheville-based conservation nonprofit, The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF), is pleased to announce it has received $600,000 in grants from the Colcom Foundation, Allegheny Foundation, and an anonymous foundation. These funds, received through competitive processes, will support the restoration of the American chestnut tree.

With these grants, TACF will develop methods to predict chestnut trees' resistance to pathogens that cause chestnut blight and Phytophthora root rot. This method, genomic selection, will accelerate selection of the most disease resistant trees from TACF's breeding program.