Restoring the American Chestnut

Learn more about American chestnuts and what they meant to America before the Chestnut Blight. We will discuss current conservation efforts taking place at the Queens County Farm Museum, and will hand out American Chestnut nuts to participants (while supplies last).

WHEN: Saturday, January 11, 2025; 10am–11am

WHERE: Queens County Farm Museum, 73-50 Little Neck Parkway, Floral Park, NY 11004

TICKETS: Free (registration required)

The American chestnut was once one of the most numerous trees in the forests of eastern North America. It was a tree of tremendous ecological, cultural, and economic importance. However, it is now considered to be functionally extinct. Tim Savage, Educator at QCFM, will talk about the importance of the American chestnut for people and for wildlife, the disease that nearly wiped these trees out, and about efforts to bring these trees back.

Tim Savage attended Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Science. Following graduation, Tim served in the United States Peace Corps and worked with farmers in Peru to increase the yields in their dairy farms. A discovery of an American Chestnut tree sprouting from a stump in Shenandoah National Park led to Tim’s joining the American Chestnut Foundation. In association with the Foundation’s NYS Chapter and the Syracuse University ESF school, Tim was instrumental in establishing an American Chestnut orchard at QCFM