Let's Get Things Started

12/80

Okay, hello!
My name is Elena Fernández, and this blog will cover my journey to completing my Girl Scout Gold Award project! (woooo)
The project is titled Return of a Giving Tree-- The American Chestnut, and my main goal/idea with this is to bring back the American Chestnut Trees to my area and educate my community about the tree itself.
Look at how pretty they are:

I plan to obtain saplings from a grower (some resistant to the chestnut blight and others not) plant them and/or tend for them, and develop a curriculum to educate my community about the tree.  My community would include local schools, my own high school, fellow troops (whether they be Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts), and through events at the Arboretum.
I'm REALLY excited to get this going!

So far this is what I've done:

1. My project got approved last week with a total of 12 hours completed out of 80.
(yay :3  still have a ways to go)
2. I've recently emailed the Saratoga Tree Nursery because one of their members, Mr Dave Lee, is closely affiliated with the American Chestnut Foundation; so I asked him for some advice on where I should plant the trees, where I should get the trees from, and how to tend for them.
http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/61320.html
3. I've done research for my powerpoint/curriculum and developed it slightly.  I'm planning to make worksheets later this week.
4. I'm thinking of ways to fundraise the purchase of the trees because they are going to be relatively... Costly. (I found a package of SEEDS that was around $300, but the seedlings probably won't be more than that.)

ALSO, I found these really interesting pages on the trees:
http://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/revival-of-the-american-chestnut/
http://www.esf.edu/chestnut/background.htm <-- I'm going to contact them about blight-resistant trees!
(I'll leave them here for your/my own reference)

I still have plenty to do and people to contact!

- Elena

P.S. I'll update as much as I can!