Chestnut Planting at the Lake

May 1st was a great day for chestnut trees at Smith Mountain Lake!  BRFAL volunteers joined forces with representatives from The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) to plant 50 seedlings in a new area at Smith Mountain Lake State Park. 

These beautiful 2-year-old 3-foot-tall bare root chestnut seedlings were grown at the Virginia Department of Forestry’s Augusta nursery.  They were planted in a new area of the state park that had recently been control burned to cut down on the number of Virginia Pines and to make room for the volunteer oaks to grow and to allow planting of new native hardwood species.  While digging 50 holes volunteers found several previously planted Willow Oaks that seemed to have survived the control burn. 

BRFAL volunteers included Paul P., Debora H., and Bob R.  Travis Wyman, our chapter advisor, along with 2 other park workers helped as well as 2 volunteers from TACF.  

For more information about TACF, visit their website: acf.org

-report by Bob