Our speaker for August 23, Bruce Levine, described the loss of the American Chestnut tree in the United States, and efforts to find a way to bring the trees back. Bruce is a member of the board of the Maryland Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation which is dedicated to returning the American Chestnut to its place in the forests of the eastern United States.

Bruce described efforts to find a type of chestnut tree that is resistant to the blight that has killed millions of trees. Recently, DNA research and advanced scientific tests have shown some promising results.

He is currently a second career PhD candidate in plant sciences at the University of Maryland where he studies the interactions between plants and pathogen