COMMUNITY PLANTINGS: GROWING NATIVE 23-24

Project: Tree Planting #6: Growing Native 23-24 Location: Barger Pond, Boxerwood Nature Center, Sarah's Run, and Jordan's Point, all in Lexington, VA Status: 201 trees planted during the 2023-2024 school year Project Period: 20 years

Total metric tons of anticipated carbon dioxide emissions (MTCO2eq) prevented: 24 tons Value: $120 per metric ton COREworks offsets available for allocation: 23

Note: Once all offsets are allocated, COREworks will remove this project from active inventory. The trees themselves will continue to grow and sequester carbon as planned. 

This project planted 201 trees at four sites within the Maury River watershed as part of ongoing efforts to protect the watershed from environmental degradation by improving stream health and promoting general ecological well-being. The Maury River is a tributary of the James River, which is within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. 

The Maury River is a state-listed impaired waterway and thus benefits from watershed best practices, including planting trees along streams and tributaries. 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. Because the Maury River 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.

The community-based tree planting for Growing Native 23-24 project took place at four sites. 

1. Barger Pond (140 trees), a privately-owned human-made pond in former farmland, owned by Charles and Susan Barger just outside the city limits of Lexington. Plantings occurred at this site in December 2023, March 2024, and April/May 2024. This land drains to small streams ultimately entering the Maury River.

2. Boxerwood Nature Center (22 trees), a 15-acre woodland garden located just outside of Lexington. Planting occurred in April 2024. Boxerwood’s land drains to Woods Creek, a tributary of the Maury.

3. Sarah’s Run (30 trees), a tributary of Woods Creek in Lexington. Sarah’s Run flows into Woods Creek at the beginning of the Woods Creek Trail near Waddell Elementary School. Community volunteers planted on both banks of Sarah’s Run in April 2024. 

4. Jordan’s Point (9 trees), a public park bordering the Maury and owned by Project Host City of Lexington. Local college students planted along the Maury River at this site in March 2024. 

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 201 trees. 

This project also entailed six distinct tree planting sessions:

1. Barger Pond

   1. On December 8, 2023, YAS after school club members planted 20 trees 

   2. On March 22, 2024, MRMS and LDMS National Junior Honor Society members planted 110 trees 

   3. On April 25, 2024 and May 1, 2024, members of after school Earth Keepers club planted 10 trees at Barger Pond.

2. Jordan’s Point

On March 30, 2024, members of the Washington and Lee Student Environmental Action League planted 9 trees. 

3. Boxerwood Nature Center & Woodland Garden

On April 6, 2024, Project Connection members planted 22 trees at Boxerwood. 

4. Sarah’s Run

On April 27, 2024, community members and Southern Virginia University students planted 30 trees.

As a result of this multi-site tree-planting project, a total of 201 new trees (12 species) now grow within the Maury River watershed. Over the next 20 years in which these trees are contractually protected, the trees are projected to sequester 24 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is equivalent to 24 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 Project #6 application to COREworks ►

Review the COREworks Registry Confirmation ►