This tree planting project will strengthen and revitalize a six-acre riparian buffer along a stretch of an unnamed tributary of Mill Creek, which itself is a tributary of the Maury River in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. 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. Riparian vegetation also removes carbon from the atmosphere. Because Mill Creek is in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, protecting its health has a positive ripple effect that benefits aquatic ecosystems all the way to the Bay and beyond.
This project was a partnership between the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Boxerwood Education Association, Rockbridge County High School Environmental Science classes, and the private landowners. On March 16, 2023, 60 high school students and 8 supervising adults planted 300 trees, with an independent contractor planting a further 510 trees later in the week. This planting reforested just over six acres of land on the banks of this tributary of Mill Creek and on a previously bare hillslope overlooking the waterway. These trees are projected to sequester 72 metric tons of carbon dioxide during the 15-year project period.
