Chestnuts and Middletown

The Connecticut Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation [CT- TACF] is joining forces with the Middletown Urban Forestry Commission and the Middletown Garden Club to create a 1.5-acre American chestnut orchard on land near the city's Higby Reservoir.

North America east of the Mississippi used to be thick with chestnuts until an imported bark fungus decimated the species in the early twentieth century. It is estimated that before the blight, chestnuts accounted for up to 25% of the hardwood forest. [Image credit: CT- TACF]

For more information on this good news for chestnuts and Middletown, click here.

Jane Harris, who is a member of the three organizations involved in the project, notes that the orchard will be planted and tended by volunteers from the Middletown Garden Club, the Middletown High School Vocational-Agricultural program, the Boy Scouts of America, and the Alternative Incarceration Center of the Connection, Inc.

Last Friday Mayor Giuliano signed the documents authorizing the orchard.