For nearly 30 years, William MacDonald, forest pathologist and WVU professor of plant and soil sciences, has been dedicated to the survival of the American chestnut tree. But he says it’s time for someone else to lead the charge.
After 18 years of volunteer service to The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF), MacDonald is stepping down from his position as treasurer of the organization.
I’m relinquishing the treasurer reigns,said MacDonald, who hopes to encouragenew bloodin the organization.
In 1987, MacDonald joined the board of directors of the TACF , an organization created to fund the research involved in restoring the American chestnut tree. This year MacDonald will conclude an 18-year run of leadership roles in TACF , but will remain active in the organization as a member of its board and science cabinet.
I will be able to devote more time to the science end of things,he said.
MacDonald became involved with the organization while meeting with geneticists who were contemplating cross-breeding American chestnuts with blight-resistant Asian trees. WVU had a research program dealing with chestnut blight geared towards working with the fungus rather than tree breeding.
It’s been a great experience,said MacDonald.Like all organizations, we struggled at the beginning, but we’ve become a successful non-profitorganization to support research and especially for breeding of blight-resistant American chestnuts.
MacDonald’s hard work as treasurer and TACF board member has played a substantial part in the organization’s success.
It has grown from just a few members and all-volunteer staff to a non-profit organization with 4,000 members, 13 full-time staff members, offices in Vermont and North Carolina, a research farm in Virginia, and a $1.4 million budget.
According to Mark Double, a research assistant who has worked closely with MacDonald at WVU , MacDonald’s attention to detail has been an essential asset for TACF .
He is a person of detail,Double said.If you were to call or write The American Chestnut Foundation and nobody responded, your interest in the American chestnut may be crushed, but thanks to MacDonald’s attention to the subject and responsespeople were hooked.
The history of TACF chronicles the ongoing pursuit of that fundamental goal: to develop a blight-resistant American chestnut tree via scientific research and breeding, and restore the tree to its native forests in eastern North America.
Once abundant, millions of American chestnut trees were killed by an invasive fungal pathogen beginning in the early 1900s. There is considerable national interest in the replenishment of the population.
Geneticists began to breed American chestnuts with Chinese chestnuts, a type of chestnut that is blight resistant. Researchers now are repeatedly backcrossing the new
hybrid with the American chestnut to create a tree is 95 percent American yet contains the genes for resistance from Chinese chestnut. The goal is to produce a timber-type American chestnut that is resistant to chestnut blight.
TACF continues to fund ongoing research at a breeding farm in Meadowview , Va. , where research staff continues the task of breeding and back-crossing. According to MacDonald, producing a completely blight-resistant tree could happen 30 to 40 years in the future. The process is a slow one because seven years are required in the breeding cycle.
MacDonald is currently doing research with diseases that kill the chestnut blight fungus and might provide biological control.
These fungal diseases have occurred naturally in some areas of the world, and we want to exploit them in order to control chestnut blight here,he said.
For more information on The American Chestnut Foundation, visithttp://www.acf.org/.