THORNDIKE — More than 50 Unity College students got dirty Tuesday inside the McKay Farm and Research Station as they filled pods with soil as part of a project to prepare 1,000 American chestnut tree seedlings.

The multi-year replanting and study effort aims to restore the American chestnut tree around central Maine by growing seeds that are disease-resistant.

Unity College students fill pods with soil Tuesday for some of the 1,000 American chestnut tree seedlings to be planted. David Leaming/Morning Sentinel Unity College student Jillian Trembley holds a sprouted American chestnut tree seedling Tuesday that will be planted and part of a multi-year project to develop blight-resistant trees for restoration at the McKay Farm and Research Station in Thorndike. Staff photo by David Leaming Unity College students Jennifer Meineke, left, and Alexis Yashin fill pods with American chestnut tree seedlings Tuesday that will be part of a multi-year effort to develop blight-resistant trees for restoration at the McKay Farm and Research Station in Thorndike. Staff photo by David Leaming

The American chestnut is classified as a tree of special concern in Maine because of the devastating effects of a blight accidentally imported to the East Coast more than 100 years ago, according to a college news release. Unity College is partnering with The American Chestnut Foundation and the New England Forestry Foundation on the project.

At the college’s Thorndike-based McKay Farm on Tuesday, professor Matthew Chatfield said the restoration project is necessary for the endangered tree, which has value as both a wildlife food and for wood products. Unity College students studying conservation biology and McKay Farm staff sowed and grew the American chestnut tree seedlings in the greenhouses at the research station.

Last year, the New England Forestry Foundation provided a planting location at its Thurston Memorial Forest in Knox and Montville. Volunteers on June 16 replanted trees in those areas.

Chatfield said the project’s study will reveal information about cold hardiness and disease resistance of American chestnuts as they are replanted in their native range.

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