Cumberland Mountain State Park hosting the American Chestnut Festival this weekend to promote restoration efforts for a tree species that once served as a vital resource.
Seasonal Interpretive Ranger Abby Harris said the festival was established last year. Aa park ranger partnered with the American Chestnut Foundation to highlight the history of the species. Harris said that while the trees still grow, they do not carry the overwhelming presence they once did.
“The American chestnut was all over the United States,” Harris said. “And it really worked as a source of food and nourishment for from Native Americans to early settlers.”
The festival will feature guest speakers including a biology professor and a representative from the American Chestnut Foundation to discuss conservation.
“The American chestnut is not fully extinct like the way we think extinct means, they are functionally extinct,” Harris said. “That means they’re still here but they are not the giant monoliths that they used to be.”
Harris said TWRA will be among the organizations present at the park. Attendees can participate in edible and medicinal plant hikes or watch a chestnut planting ceremony.
“By educating people on how they used to be and how there are a lot of efforts to bring them back, it shows people a lot of care to this cause,” Harris said. “So by sustaining and by reusing things and by using things that are found on the land, hopefully that’ll kind of spark interest in trying to bring back these American chestnuts.”
Harris said vendors will sell various nut-related foods and handmade goods during the four-hour event. Harris said the festival aims to increase public awareness for the foundation and its work to develop a blight-resistant version of the tree.
“By just showing up and by participating in these activities and these lectures and we will also have a chestnut planting ceremony that people can be a part of as well, it will really appreciate, it’ll show an appreciation of this cause and it can show people the American Chestnut Foundation and realize, ‘Hey, this foundation actually exists,'” Harris said. “So hopefully it’ll give them more awareness to their cause as well.”
Harris said the event runs from Saturday from 10am-2pm and will conclude with a chestnut roasting activity.
