Located at Barger Pond and Jordan's Point, both in Lexington, VA, as well as Southern Virginia University, Buena Vista, VA
Total MTCO2eq Offsets Generated: 8
COMMUNITY PLANTINGS: GROWING NATIVE 24-25 & 25-26
Project: Tree Planting #7: Growing Native 24-25 & 25-26 Location: Barger Pond and Jordan's Point both in Lexington, VA, as well as Southern Virginia University, Buena Vista, VA Status: 74 trees planted during the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years Project Period: 20 years
Total metric tons of anticipated carbon dioxide emissions (MTCO2eq) prevented: 8 tons Value: $120 per metric ton COREworks offsets available for allocation: 8
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 enlisted volunteers to plant 196 native trees at three sites within the Maury River watershed. The effort is part of ongoing work to protect the local 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 24-25 & 25-26 project took place at three sites.
Barger Pond (123 trees), a privately-owned human-made pond constructed about twenty years ago in former farmland, owned by Charles and Susan Barger just outside the city limits of Lexington. Plantings occurred at this site in March, April, and May 2025 as well as April 2026. This land drains to small streams ultimately entering the Maury River.
Jordan’s Point (15 trees), a public park bordering the Maury and owned by Project Host City of Lexington. Washington and Lee college students planted along the Maury River at this site in April 2026.
Southern Virginia University (58 trees), a private liberal arts college in Buena Vista. Planting by student volunteers on this campus occurred in April 2025.
All trees provided for the project were grown by schoolchildren participating in the complementary Boxerwood program, “Growing Native.” As part of this curricularly-integrated school program, 200 4th graders each year first learn about the value of protecting watersheds through best management practices (BMPs). They then learn the basics of tree stewardship and the value of riparian buffers. Each spring, the learning culminates in an action project in which the 4th graders plant 300-400 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 196 trees.
This project entailed six distinct tree planting sessions:
Barger Pond
On March 25, 2025, Maury River MS and Lylburn Downing MS National Junior Honor Society members planted 93 trees.
On April 9, 2025 and May 7, 2025, Earth Keepers club members planted a total of 14 trees.
On April 29, 2025, Boxerwood Bay Club members planted 7 trees.
On April 22, 2026, Earth Keepers members teamed up with MRMS FFA members to plant 9 trees.
Jordan’s Point
On April 5, 2026, members of the Washington and Lee Student Environmental Action League planted 15 trees.
Southern Virginia University
On April 4, 2025, SVU students planted 58 trees on a campus hillside.
In sum, as a result of this multi-site tree-planting project, volunteers planted a total of 196 new trees (15 native species) within the Maury River watershed.
Unfortunately, the planting period also corresponded with developing drought conditions throughout Rockbridge. Notably, of the 196 trees planted, only 74 survive, based on July 2026 on-site assessments. As the mortality rate exceeds that typically accounted for in COREworks calculations, Boxerwood calculated the number of generated offsets on those 74 resilient trees rather than the 196 initially planted. Over the next 20 years in which these trees are contractually protected, the surviving 74 trees are projected to sequester 8 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is equivalent to 8 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 #7 application to COREworks ►
Review the COREworks Registry Confirmation ►
