Help prepare chestnut trees for pollination by placing bags over selected flowers at our Monocacy orchard on Thursday 8 June from 9:00 am to about 1:00 pm. The orchard is at 7033 Ed Sears Roard in Dickerson MD.
The work will involve reaching flowers by ladder or bucket lift, then securing paper bags over the branches containing flowers. Volunteers who do not want to climb can support the work from the ground. No experience necessary. The goal is to prevent pollination from unknown parents.
Several weeks later, another volunteer party will return to hand pollinate the bagged flowers with pollen from specially selected trees from across Maryland. The flowers will grow into nuts by this fall, which we will collect, test, and plant the following spring as the next generation of chestnut trees, which will hopefully be incrementally better able to resist chestnut blight, as part of the American Chestnut Foundation's larger program to restore a native tree to our region's environment.
We recommend you wear a hat and long pants. You might want to bring sunscreen, bug spray, water, and food.
Student participation in this service project is at the discretion of the student’s parent/guardian and must be completed outside of school hours. The nonprofit organization is responsible for maintaining student safety. Parents/guardians should contact the nonprofit directly with any questions and/or concerns.
