Presenter: Mark Double

PVMN Continuing Education Eligible

This event is free and open to the public.

The Potomac Valley Audubon Society welcomes Mark Double, President of the West Virginia chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation.

Join Mark Double as he discusses the history of the American chestnut, its relation to the State of West Virginia, and how to identify various chestnut species. Double also will discuss the three approaches being utilized by The American Chestnut Foundation to combat the chestnut blight pathogen with the hope of restoring American chestnut back into the forests of eastern North America.

Mark Double has worked with American chestnut and the chestnut blight fungus for 41 years at West Virginia University.  He worked mainly with biological control of the chestnut blight fungus, where a fungal virus is inserted into the chestnut blight fungus to slow its growth and allow the tree to produce callus tissue to wall off the pathogen. Double, recently retired from WVU, is the President of the West Virginia chapter of The American Chestnut Foundation. Double has spoken on chestnut-related issues, locally, nationally and internationally.

If the weather is not favorable and roads are not safe, a snow date of Saturday, March 7 has been set.

Please contact Krista Hawley at adultprograms@potomacaudubon.org or 681-252-1387 with any questions you may have.