#upstateny — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Sally Strange @[email protected] · 2026-09-01 · 13:26 UTC

American chestnut restoration update time. (Note: if you read up about the story of American chestnut trees, you can skip "The Overstory" by Richard Powers.)

The American Chestnut Foundation used to support SUNY ESF (College of Environment, Science, & Forestry) efforts to genetically engineer an American chestnut tree with a gene that expresses an acid that neutralizes the blight that started killing North American chestnut trees over a century ago. This GE chestnut variant was called “Darling 58,” the Darling being the last name of one of the principal researchers, and 58 being the number of different variations they’d tried out up til then. However, it was discovered in 2023 that ESF had mixed up their varieties and the strain they had actually been testing and propagating as their most likely candidate was Darling 54, which turned out to be missing an important American chestnut gene. Between that error, ongoing observations that trees that were homozygous for the blight-resistant gene had high mortality rates, and the revelation that ESF were partnering with private companies that sought to commercialize the new chestnut stock in contradiction with the TANF non-profit mission, TANF withdrew their support. Even though they are not opposed to genetically engineering trees in general.

The USDA just completed a review of Darling 54, and cleared it for further research and development. To me and many others, including the American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation, this is bad news. The flaws in Darling 54 make it an unlikely candidate for restoration, but more importantly, non-GE methods for chestnut restoration are underway and making progress. One tactic in this effort is to breed resistant American chestnut individuals together to create a larger resistant population. The other is breeding American chestnuts with Chinese chestnuts, which are blight-resistant but too short to succeed in wild North American forests.

It takes five years from germination to even determine whether a tree is affected by the blight, and chestnuts don't produce fruit until they're 20 years old. Given this long timeframe, it's hard to see how ESF can meet the demands of rigorous scientific testing of Darling 54 within a timeframe that is profitable to their private sector partners, whose aims include creating biomass cash crops of chestnuts. If these trees were released to the wild, there is a risk of truly eliminating the American chestnut, for good this time. To ESF's commercial partners, this is a risk worth running if it means they can borrow some of the public goodwill towards restoring the chestnut and apply it to genetically engineered crops and trees in general.

If you're in NYS, call your representatives. If you have SUNY connections, get in touch with them. I'll let you know if I come across any other calls to action.

https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/magazine/entry/lessons-from-the-unsuccessful-gm-chestnut-experiment/

https://www.syracuse.com/outdoors/2025/07/experimental-chestnut-tree-grown-in-syracuse-one-step-closer-to-release.html

#environment #trees #Darling58 #Darling54 #forests #Chestnuts #AmericanChestnut #SUNY #UpstateNY #ecology

#environment #trees #darling58 #darling54 #forests #chestnuts

Sally Strange @[email protected] · 2026-09-01 · 13:26 UTC

American chestnut restoration update time. (Note: if you read up about the story of American chestnut trees, you can skip "The Overstory" by Richard Powers.)

The American Chestnut Foundation used to support SUNY ESF (College of Environment, Science, & Forestry) efforts to genetically engineer an American chestnut tree with a gene that expresses an acid that neutralizes the blight that started killing North American chestnut trees over a century ago. This GE chestnut variant was called “Darling 58,” the Darling being the last name of one of the principal researchers, and 58 being the number of different variations they’d tried out up til then. However, it was discovered in 2023 that ESF had mixed up their varieties and the strain they had actually been testing and propagating as their most likely candidate was Darling 54, which turned out to be missing an important American chestnut gene. Between that error, ongoing observations that trees that were homozygous for the blight-resistant gene had high mortality rates, and the revelation that ESF were partnering with private companies that sought to commercialize the new chestnut stock in contradiction with the TANF non-profit mission, TANF withdrew their support. Even though they are not opposed to genetically engineering trees in general.

The USDA just completed a review of Darling 54, and cleared it for further research and development. To me and many others, including the American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation, this is bad news. The flaws in Darling 54 make it an unlikely candidate for restoration, but more importantly, non-GE methods for chestnut restoration are underway and making progress. One tactic in this effort is to breed resistant American chestnut individuals together to create a larger resistant population. The other is breeding American chestnuts with Chinese chestnuts, which are blight-resistant but too short to succeed in wild North American forests.

It takes five years from germination to even determine whether a tree is affected by the blight, and chestnuts don't produce fruit until they're 20 years old. Given this long timeframe, it's hard to see how ESF can meet the demands of rigorous scientific testing of Darling 54 within a timeframe that is profitable to their private sector partners, whose aims include creating biomass cash crops of chestnuts. If these trees were released to the wild, there is a risk of truly eliminating the American chestnut, for good this time. To ESF's commercial partners, this is a risk worth running if it means they can borrow some of the public goodwill towards restoring the chestnut and apply it to genetically engineered crops and trees in general.

If you're in NYS, call your representatives. If you have SUNY connections, get in touch with them. I'll let you know if I come across any other calls to action.

https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/magazine/entry/lessons-from-the-unsuccessful-gm-chestnut-experiment/

https://www.syracuse.com/outdoors/2025/07/experimental-chestnut-tree-grown-in-syracuse-one-step-closer-to-release.html

#environment #trees #Darling58 #Darling54 #forests #Chestnuts #AmericanChestnut #SUNY #UpstateNY #ecology

#environment #trees #darling58 #darling54 #forests #chestnuts

Sally Strange @[email protected] · 2026-09-01 · 13:26 UTC

American chestnut restoration update time. (Note: if you read up about the story of American chestnut trees, you can skip "The Overstory" by Richard Powers.)

The American Chestnut Foundation used to support SUNY ESF (College of Environment, Science, & Forestry) efforts to genetically engineer an American chestnut tree with a gene that expresses an acid that neutralizes the blight that started killing North American chestnut trees over a century ago. This GE chestnut variant was called “Darling 58,” the Darling being the last name of one of the principal researchers, and 58 being the number of different variations they’d tried out up til then. However, it was discovered in 2023 that ESF had mixed up their varieties and the strain they had actually been testing and propagating as their most likely candidate was Darling 54, which turned out to be missing an important American chestnut gene. Between that error, ongoing observations that trees that were homozygous for the blight-resistant gene had high mortality rates, and the revelation that ESF were partnering with private companies that sought to commercialize the new chestnut stock in contradiction with the TANF non-profit mission, TANF withdrew their support. Even though they are not opposed to genetically engineering trees in general.

The USDA just completed a review of Darling 54, and cleared it for further research and development. To me and many others, including the American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation, this is bad news. The flaws in Darling 54 make it an unlikely candidate for restoration, but more importantly, non-GE methods for chestnut restoration are underway and making progress. One tactic in this effort is to breed resistant American chestnut individuals together to create a larger resistant population. The other is breeding American chestnuts with Chinese chestnuts, which are blight-resistant but too short to succeed in wild North American forests.

It takes five years from germination to even determine whether a tree is affected by the blight, and chestnuts don't produce fruit until they're 20 years old. Given this long timeframe, it's hard to see how ESF can meet the demands of rigorous scientific testing of Darling 54 within a timeframe that is profitable to their private sector partners, whose aims include creating biomass cash crops of chestnuts. If these trees were released to the wild, there is a risk of truly eliminating the American chestnut, for good this time. To ESF's commercial partners, this is a risk worth running if it means they can borrow some of the public goodwill towards restoring the chestnut and apply it to genetically engineered crops and trees in general.

If you're in NYS, call your representatives. If you have SUNY connections, get in touch with them. I'll let you know if I come across any other calls to action.

https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/magazine/entry/lessons-from-the-unsuccessful-gm-chestnut-experiment/

https://www.syracuse.com/outdoors/2025/07/experimental-chestnut-tree-grown-in-syracuse-one-step-closer-to-release.html

#environment #trees #Darling58 #Darling54 #forests #Chestnuts #AmericanChestnut #SUNY #UpstateNY #ecology

#ecology #upstateny #suny #americanchestnut #chestnuts #forests

Sally Strange @[email protected] · 2026-09-01 · 13:26 UTC

American chestnut restoration update time. (Note: if you read up about the story of American chestnut trees, you can skip "The Overstory" by Richard Powers.)

The American Chestnut Foundation used to support SUNY ESF (College of Environment, Science, & Forestry) efforts to genetically engineer an American chestnut tree with a gene that expresses an acid that neutralizes the blight that started killing North American chestnut trees over a century ago. This GE chestnut variant was called “Darling 58,” the Darling being the last name of one of the principal researchers, and 58 being the number of different variations they’d tried out up til then. However, it was discovered in 2023 that ESF had mixed up their varieties and the strain they had actually been testing and propagating as their most likely candidate was Darling 54, which turned out to be missing an important American chestnut gene. Between that error, ongoing observations that trees that were homozygous for the blight-resistant gene had high mortality rates, and the revelation that ESF were partnering with private companies that sought to commercialize the new chestnut stock in contradiction with the TANF non-profit mission, TANF withdrew their support. Even though they are not opposed to genetically engineering trees in general.

The USDA just completed a review of Darling 54, and cleared it for further research and development. To me and many others, including the American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation, this is bad news. The flaws in Darling 54 make it an unlikely candidate for restoration, but more importantly, non-GE methods for chestnut restoration are underway and making progress. One tactic in this effort is to breed resistant American chestnut individuals together to create a larger resistant population. The other is breeding American chestnuts with Chinese chestnuts, which are blight-resistant but too short to succeed in wild North American forests.

It takes five years from germination to even determine whether a tree is affected by the blight, and chestnuts don't produce fruit until they're 20 years old. Given this long timeframe, it's hard to see how ESF can meet the demands of rigorous scientific testing of Darling 54 within a timeframe that is profitable to their private sector partners, whose aims include creating biomass cash crops of chestnuts. If these trees were released to the wild, there is a risk of truly eliminating the American chestnut, for good this time. To ESF's commercial partners, this is a risk worth running if it means they can borrow some of the public goodwill towards restoring the chestnut and apply it to genetically engineered crops and trees in general.

If you're in NYS, call your representatives. If you have SUNY connections, get in touch with them. I'll let you know if I come across any other calls to action.

https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/magazine/entry/lessons-from-the-unsuccessful-gm-chestnut-experiment/

https://www.syracuse.com/outdoors/2025/07/experimental-chestnut-tree-grown-in-syracuse-one-step-closer-to-release.html

#environment #trees #Darling58 #Darling54 #forests #Chestnuts #AmericanChestnut #SUNY #UpstateNY #ecology

#environment #trees #darling58 #darling54 #forests #chestnuts