COMMUNITY PLANTINGS: GROWING NATIVE 23-24

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.

Boxerwood Education Association (BEA) provided technical assistance and materials for this 4-site 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 2023-24 school year, Boxerwood educators brought together several groups of people to plant the 201 native trees. All of the trees planted in the project originated from an ancillary Boxerwood 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, and supplied the trees to be planted. Boxerwood also provided tree planting supplies (shovels, gloves, etc.), and organized, trained, and supervised several groups of youth and community members who planted the trees as volunteers. These essential support activities could not have been accomplished without the anticipation of retroactive COREworks funding. 

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

• 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.

• 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.

• 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. 

• 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. 

Six distinct groups of tree-planting volunteers participated in “Tree Planting Project #6: Growing Native 23-24”:

• Gr. 6 - 8 Maury River Middle School (MRMS) students who participated in the school’s after school program “Youth Achieving Success,” (YAS) 11 students. 

• Gr. 7-8 members of the National Junior Honor Society from both Maury River Middle School and Lylburn Downing Middle School, est. 60 students. 

• Members of the Washington and Lee student group “Student Environmental Action League,” 7 students. 

• Members of Project Connection, a teen-led organization that connects local teenagers and children with disabilities. Both teens and children with disabilities worked together to plant trees, est. 18 students. 

• Gr. 6-8 MRMS and LDMS members of Boxerwood-led “Earth Keepers” after school program, 7 students. 

• Community volunteers, many of whom were associated with an environmental student organization at Southern Virginia University. Volunteers were recruited via Boxerwood social media and newsletter. 11 volunteers. 

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 ►