Forestry Student Is Nuts about Penn State

At 29, Justin Bartley is older than most undergraduate students, but he figures he'll still be able to relax in the shade of a spreading American chestnut tree after he retires in three or four decades.

Since virtually all the American chestnut trees in North America have been wiped out by a blight accidentally introduced from Asia in 1906, one can't help but wonder what Bartley knows that the rest of us don't. Turns out his internship working with a research technician for the American Chestnut Foundation in Penn State's School of Forest Resources has given him confidence that a blight-resistant chestnut tree will be developed.

"Absolutely, I believe it is just a matter of time now," says the senior forestry science major from Howard, Pa. "By the time I am an older gentleman, I hope to even sample wild chestnuts. During my career, I would like to help restore chestnuts to the forests of Pennsylvania."

As part of his internship, Bartley has been accompanying the American Chestnut Foundation's research biologist Sara Fitzsimmons around the state to hybrid chestnut orchards where researchers and volunteers are nurturing trees that have disease resistance from cross-breeding with Chinese chestnut trees. He helps with planting, maintenance, controlled pollination, data collection, and inoculations - administering the deadly blight - to see whether the hybrids can withstand the disease.

"Working on the chestnut restoration project is an opportunity that is going to stretch past me and my generation and span my kids' generation," Bartley says. "No one wants to see a tree go extinct, so many people are interested in this. It is exciting!"

Choosing Penn State was a no-brainer for Bartley. "With the history and tradition of the University's forestry program, I didn't even consider any other schools," he says. "There was no competition."