Forest Health Initiative

A collaborative effort between the Endowment, the US Forest Service and Duke Energy, the Forest Health Initiative (FHI) works to plumb the potential role of biotechnology in addressing some of today’s most pressing forest health challenges.

The Initiative uses a holistic approach to address emerging forest health threats by assessing not just the science but the societal and regulatory issues concurrently.

The Initiative’s initial focus uses an icon of eastern U. S. forests – the American chestnut, whose numbers were virtually wiped out during the past century by chestnut blight – as the test organism to explore new approaches to enhance the health and vitality of other trees, forests, and forest ecosystems.