The chestnut tree is one of the most majestic native trees in America, and has decreased vastly in number today, thanks to the imported fungus from Asia.

To create awareness about the American chestnut and educate about its characteristics and the diseases associated with it, West Virginia University will host a symposium on the chestnut tree in the first week of September.

West Virginia University has partnered with the International Society of Horticultural Sciences, the American Chestnut Foundation and the United States Department of Agriculture to host the fifth International Chestnut Symposium Sept. 4-8 at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown.

The university, based in Morgantown, W. Va., has conducted symposiums on the same species of trees four times in the past. It hosted the first symposium in 1978 and again in 1992. Through these symposiums, WVU has played a role of conduit for more than three decades, bringing together scientists from across the world to discuss research to help in understanding the chestnut and its associated problems scientifically.

The 2012 meeting in Shepherdstown is expected to host 100 individuals from nine countries and more than 40 universities and agencies in the United States. There are 67 oral and poster presentations on the program.

Some chestnut growers from Australia are also attending the symposium, the university said.

Research progress covered at the symposium will include pests and pathogens, breeding and genetics, the Forest Health Initiative, food science, ecology and reforestation, and propagation and orchard management.

The American chestnut was one of the most valuable trees in Eastern American forests, spanning from southern Ontario to northern Florida; it was destroyed by the chestnut blight, a disease caused by the Asian bark fungus. It killed up to three billion American chestnut trees at one go, in the early 20th century.

Multi-state research into improvement and preservation of the American chestnut, led by William MacDonald in the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, has been recognized for excellence by the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities.

"Remarkably, in the more than 30 years since the first iteration of this project, there is real hope for a significant recovery of the American chestnut," MacDonald said. "This ongoing multistate project has played a major role in effecting and documenting that recovery, while contributing outstanding basic and applied science to our knowledge base."