{"id":21927,"date":"2026-08-03T13:12:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T17:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/?p=21927"},"modified":"2026-08-03T13:12:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T17:12:26","slug":"ava-backes-qa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/news\/ava-backes-qa\/","title":{"rendered":"Restoring the American Chestnut: Q&A with Ava Backes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A junior majoring in environmental science and management<\/a>, Ava Backes is conducting research through the CELS Summer Fellowship<\/a> program under the mentorship of professor Laura Meyerson. This summer, she is helping to restore the American chestnut, a once-dominant tree that was nearly wiped out by an introduced fungal blight. Passionate about ecological restoration, she is working to breed and cultivate blight-resistant chestnut trees that can one day be reintroduced to their native range. Through the fellowship, she’s caring for greenhouse and orchard plants, assisting with controlled pollination, and contributing to a long-term effort to restore a keystone species and the ecosystems that depend on it. Learn more about her work below!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q.<\/strong> What are you working on this summer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A. I\u2019m working on a project to restore the American chestnut by producing hybrid crosses between the susceptible American and resistant Chinese chestnut. This cross will eventually lead to a tree that contains the Chinese resistant genes while preserving at least 70% of the American characteristics to restore its ecological functions. The goal is to be able to create American chestnuts that can grow and survive in the wild while providing a habitat and nutritious food for wildlife and humans.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What have you enjoyed most about your fellowship experience?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being surprised every day by a new spider, frog, bird, or vole that is thriving in the orchard. There is a tremendous amount of life that depends on these trees, and it just amazes me how biodiversity exists, and I still haven’t seen half of it. This shows me how many different species rely on these trees and the vital role they serve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s been one of your favorite moments this summer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spending the day pollinating the bagged flowers. We got to climb on ladders and pollinate each bagged flower, contributing to the next generation of trees. I got to hang out with my co-workers in the orchards, talk all day, eat yummy pizza rolls, and get to pollinate knowing we were contributing to a larger purpose. We were out in the field, working directly and closely with the chestnuts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your mentors like?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working with Dr. Meyerson and Ph.D student Don Ruggieri has been wonderful; I feel so grateful for their support and caring for me not only as a student but also as a person. They have given me the confidence I need to believe I have what it takes to make a difference and pursue my passions no matter how hard it seems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What have you learned through the fellowship that you couldn\u2019t have learned in the classroom?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in times of self-doubt and not feeling like I am qualified or smart enough, curiosity and ambition have shown me that I belong in this field and can do hard things. I feel privileged to be able to positively impact the environment because I believe we need to reciprocate the love and care that nature provides us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As part of a CELS Summer Research Fellowship, Ava Backes is helping restore the American chestnut, breeding blight-resistant trees that could one day return a lost keystone species to its native range.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":21928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[54,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fellowships","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21927"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21929,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21927\/revisions\/21929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}