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That same morning a larger contingent of students planted 51 additional natives at Boxerwood. One group planted a dozen pin oaks to create more wildlife habitat; others planted 39 silky dogwoods on a wooded hillside to help absorb storm water.
“We’re trying to control erosion in this hillside area,” said garden and facility manager Ben Eland, “and I’m excited that these shade-loving dogwoods shrubs are ideal for the job.”
All told, the students planted 63 trees that morning. Making this project especially meaningful was the back story: all the trees the LDMS students planted were the very same trees they themselves had placed into pots as seedlings as elementary students at Waddell.
“All fourth-graders in our county participate in a Boxerwood program called Growing Native,” explained Elise Sheffield, Boxerwood education director. “As part of the stewardship cycle, students first plant the seedlings as fourth-graders, which grow for a couple of years in our tree nursery. In middle school Boxerwood looks for conservation projects like this one where the students, now 2-3 years older, pick up the big, heavy shovels and actually plant. Support for the project came in part from the Cacapon Institute and the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund (license plate).” -Boxerwood also helped facilitate an even larger tree planting event near Raphine on Dec. 9 and 10 in partnership When it comes to taking earth care actions, planting more native trees is high on the list. Native trees such as oaks, dogwood, and river birch provide myriad ecological services including creating wildlife habitat, preventing soil erosion, protecting water quality, and sequestering carbon.
This fall more than 135 area volunteers supported two large tree planting projects that put an additional 663 native trees into the ground in just three days.
The first project took place one frosty morning just before Thanksgiving. As part of a service-learning initiative, more than 100 earth stewards from Lylburn Downing Middle School stepped away from the classroom to address needs at nearby Richardson Park and Boxerwood Nature Center.
Facilitated by Boxerwood in collaboration with the city of Lexington and LDMS, the project saw the entire seventh and eighth grade putting their learning into real-world action. More than half the students had recently returned from a school-sponsored trip to the Chesapeake Bay where they learned firsthand how actions in the headwaters impact life downstream.
The Nov. 22 tree planting “give back” enabled these young earth stewards to make a lasting difference for their own community, and for the Bay. By the end of the morning the students had planted a dozen shade trees for Richardson Park, following guidance by the city arborist Celia Raney.
with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. CBF is currently implementing a program that covers costs associated with protecting Rockbridge streams through riparian (stream) plantings.
According to CBF project coordinator Sarah Coffey, CBF also offers farmers technical and financial assistance for exclusion fencing and alternative watering sources.
“The combination of excluding livestock from the streams plus planting trees leads to great reductions in the nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment pollution entering our waterways,” she said. The project will continue to be available to local landowners in 2023, she said.
The project’s landowners were also motivated by the opportunity to link the treeplanting project to COREworks, Boxerwood’s offset marketplace.
“We’re still in the process of reviewing the project,” said Sheffield, “but we anticipate this reforestation will result in more than 50 tons of sequestered carbon during its first decade or so of growth.”
After verification, those offsets will be listed on the COREworks marketplace, available for procurement by individuals wishing to reduce their carbon footprint. In a win-win arrangement, proceeds from the transactions help fund additional carbonreducing projects in Rockbridge, she said.
The Raphine area project transformed several acres of pastureland into a vibrant
ABOVE, LDMS students worked in teams to plant seedlings at Richardson Park they had first tended as elementary students. BELOW, volunteers plant trees along Moffats Creek in the Raphine area last month in a project led by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Boxerwood.
riparian buffer that will help stabilize eroded streambank as well as provide shade for fish species. The 35 volunteers who traveled to the site for planting the trees were a diverse group united in a stewardship mission. Some came from a local garden club, other were university students, student- athletes, and local residents, said Coffey. The 600 trees they planted represented 25 different species, including persimmon, sycamore, hazelnut, redbud and bald cypress.
The Raphine project planting was funded by the James River Buffer Program. Under this program, landowners in Rockbridge County and other counties in the upper James watershed can receive full funding to plant and maintain trees along rivers and streams that eventually flow into the James River. To learn more, readers can e-mail Sarah Coffey at [email protected] or visit https://www.jamesriverbuffers. org/.
To learn more about Boxerwood’s carbon offset marketplace, visit https://coreworks. boxerwood.org.
