 Both Elkins and Griffin have written extensively about the American chestnut.They believe that by making intercrosses among resistant American chestnuts from many locations, they will continue to improve upon the levels of blight resistance to make an American chestnut that can compete in the forest.Griffin, who has been involved with American chestnut restoration for many years, developed a scale for assessing levels of blight resistance, which made it possible to make selections scientifically.