In Celebration of Tree Week, The Parklands will be opening up the George and Betty Gibbs American Chestnut Grove, in Beckley Creek Park, for a special stop-in tour. Over a century ago, an estimated 3–4 billion chestnut trees covered eastern North America. When a chestnut blight was introduced into the United States in 1904, the fungus killed nearly all mature American chestnuts — an event that has been called the greatest ecological disaster of the 20th century. With a donation from George and Betty Gibbs, a grove of native and hybrid chestnuts was planted near the William F. Miles Trailhead in Beckley Creek Park in the hope of nurturing blight-resistant trees. Join Parklands’ Horticulturalist on Saturday, October 7^th between 10 am-2 pm to hear about highlights of the program, get questions answered, and learn more about our efforts to grow blight-resistant trees!

No registration is required for this event. To get to the North American Chestnut Grove park at the William F. Miles Trailhead in Beckley Creek Park, the Chestnut Grove sits beside the William F. Miles Community Garden.