MAINE PUBLIC • June 14, 2024
A dozen volunteers planted 10 wild American chestnut seedlings at a Yarmouth nature preserve in the hopes of helping restore the devastated American chestnut tree. The volunteer group organized by the Maine chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation planted the seedlings at the Cousins River Fields and Marsh Reserve cared after by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust. Chestnut trees in Maine grow sparsely as the state is on the northernmost edge of where the plant grows. Due to that low density, the blight did not devastate the trees as heavily. Eva Butler, vice president of Maine's chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, said Maine now has one of the highest populations of wild chestnuts in the nation.