COMMUNITY PLANTINGS: GROWING NATIVE 22-23

The goal of this project was to plant 101 trees at two sites within the Woods Creek watershed, thus improving ecological well-being. Woods Creek runs through Lexington, Virginia and is a tributary of the Maury River (then the James River) within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. 

Woods Creek is a state-listed impaired waterway and thus benefits from watershed best practices, such as planting trees. Healthy riparian buffers protect water quality, filter excess nutrients from waterways, prevent bank erosion, provide habitat and food for local wildlife, and create shade for aquatic species, in addition to removing atmospheric carbon that all trees sequester. Because Woods Creek is part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, restoring the health of this ecosystem creates positive ripple effects all the way down to the Bay. The Bay itself is ecologically impaired, damaged by high inputs of sedimentation and nutrients from its tributaries, so any restoration upstream helps downstream.

To address this need, Boxerwood Education Association (BEA) provided technical assistance and materials for this tree-planting project. Boxerwood is an environmental education non-profit located just outside Lexington, VA. Its mission is “to educate and inspire people of all ages to become successful stewards of the Earth.” During the 2022-23 school year, Boxerwood educators brought together several groups of people to plant the 101 native trees at two sites within the Woods Creek watershed. All of the trees planted in the project originated from an ancillary tree-growing program called “The Growing Native Project,” hence the title of this COREworks application.

As lead agent, Boxerwood identified the tree-planting sites, recruited Project Hosts and Project Partners, lent forestry guidance (from internal expertise), supplied the trees to be planted as well as tree planting supplies (shovels, gloves, etc.), and organized, trained, and supervised several groups of youth who actually planted the trees as volunteers. These essential support activities could not have been accomplished without the anticipation of COREworks funding. 

The community-based tree planting for Growing Native 22-23 project took place at two sites. 

• Boxerwood Nature Center (65 trees), a 15-acre woodland garden located just outside of Lexington. Plantings occurred in Nov. 2022 and May 2023. 

• Sunnyside Farm (36 trees). Once farmland, this meadow and woods runs alongside Ross Road just outside Lexington. The land is owned and stewarded by Rockbridge Conservation, a Rockbridge county-based environmental non-profit organization. Planting occurred in May 2023.

All trees provided for the project were grown by schoolchildren participating in a complementary Boxerwood program called “Growing Native.” In this curricularly-integrated school program, about 200 4th graders each year learn about the value of protecting watershed through best management practices (BMPs). The learning culminates in a springtime service learning action in which the 4th graders plant bare root tree seedlings into pots. These seedlings spend the next year or two in grow-out nurseries managed by Boxerwood until they are ready for community tree-planting projects, as was the case for these 101 Woods Creek trees. 

Four distinct groups of volunteer tree planters were part of “Tree Planting Project #4: Growing Native 22-23”

•  The entire 7th and 8th grades attending LDMS. est. 90 students and teachers

• Gr. 6 - 8 Maury River Middle School (MRMS) students who participated in the school’s after school program “Youth Achieving Success,” est. 15 students.

• MRMS members of the Boxerwood Bay Club, est. 15 students. 

• Members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Sorority at Washington and Lee University. AKA is one of the “Divine Nine” Historically Black Greek Letter Organizations. Est. 12 students. 

This project entailed three distinct tree plantings: 

• On November 22, 2022, 7th & 8th graders from Lylburn Downing Middle School (LDMS) students planted 51 trees at Boxerwood. 

• On April 21, 2023, students from Maury River Middle School planted 36 trees at Sunnyside Farm. 

• On May 13, 2023, members of Washington and Lee University’s Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority planted 14 trees at Boxerwood. 

As a result of this tree-planting project, a total of 101 new trees (7 species) now grow within the Woods Creek watershed. Over the next 20 years in which these trees are contractually protected, the trees are projected to sequester 12 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is equivalent to 12 COREworks carbon offsets. 

 

This project has met COREworks standards of integrity as assessed by both the internal and external (community) review protocol.

Review the approved Tree Planting #4 application to COREworks ►

Review the COREworks Registry Confirmation ►