Thomas Huff is on a mission: To restore the American chestnut tree.

Call him “Johnny Chestnut Seed.”

Huff has planted American chestnut tree seedlings in Allentown, Emmaus and Lower Macungie and Salisbury townships.

“This mountain range is a historic chestnut ridge,” Huff said at the Salisbury Township Environmental Advisory Council June 21 meeting in the municipal building, which is on the northern slope of South Mountain. “That’s why there are Chestnut Hill Roads in some spots,” Huff said.

Though the place names remain, the American chestnut trees are mostly long gone. An estimated four billion were killed by a blight beginning in 1904 and continuing for some 50 years.

“It killed 70 to 75 percent of American chestnut trees,” Huff said in his slide presentation to the EAC.

Huff, director of the New York Chapter, The American Chestnut Tree Foundation, hopes to help restore what he said is “America’s most iconic tree” one plot at a time.

One such planting was recently completed in Franko Farm Park, Salisbury Township.

Huff received approval at the May 25 township commissioners’ meeting to plant American chestnut saplings at Franko Farm, with assistance of a township public works crew. The estimated project cost was $350-$600.

Eight American chestnut tree seedlings were planted in a 30-foot square. Three-foot growth per year is anticipated for each.

“Inside each plastic tube is a seedling,” Huff said.

“By year four, they’re going to be throwing off pollen,” Huff said.

Blight-resistant American chestnuts are being created by scientists at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, N.Y., as part of the American Chestnut Research & Restoration Project.

The researchers’ Darling 58 American chestnuts are under federal regulatory review by the United States Department of Agriculture Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Food and Drug Administration.

The American chestnut tree produces a burr with tight green spikes that may contain two or more edible dark brown nuts that can be boiled or roasted. The nuts once provided food for Native Americans, wildlife and livestock farmers.

The American chestnut (Castanea dentata) is a deciduous tree that once forested the Appalachian Mountains, roughly from New England to Louisiana.

“Is there a place for the EAC to get involved?” Huff asked, noting Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts volunteered to help with area American chestnut tree plantings to earn merit badges.

“I highly recommend the township getting involved,” township Commissioner Heather Lipkin said, attending the EAC as commissioners’ liaison.

The EAC is next scheduled to meet 7 p.m. Aug. 16 in the township municipal building.

For more information, visit The American Chestnut Foundation: https://acf.org/.