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A ‘Green’ March Madness Students Dig Into Multiple Tree Plantings With Boxerwood
“We’re not sure how it happened,” reflected Boxerwood sustainability educator Ginny Johnson, “but all of a sudden we had multiple tree planting projects filling the calendar like our own version of March Madness.”
In the space of three fastpaced weeks in March, Boxerwood and partners knocked out four community restoration projects that put 244 new trees into Rockbridge soil. Planting on both private and public land, the full-court press involved 156 tree planting citizens, almost all of them between the ages of 12 and 22.
“Early spring is a perfect time for planting trees,” explained former VDOF forester and Boxerwood volunteer coordinator Karen Stanley. “It’s before leaf-out, so less stress for the transplants.”
The month of March also coincides with the school-preferred time for environmental service-learning projects: not too early, when it’s cold, and not too late, when schools are pre-occupied with end-ofyear testing.
According to Stanley, March 2024 was Boxerwood’s busiest tree planting season yet.
The “March Madness” kicked off with an all-day 103-tree planting along Union Run, in collaboration with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF).
In this partnership, CBF provided trees and technical assistance while Boxerwood recruited, trained, and supervised the volunteers who put the trees in the ground. As it turned out, two teachers from Rockbridge County High School had been looking for a hands-on project for their 60 environmental science students, and the rest was history.
“The teens had been studying about watershed protection and climate change in class,” said Stanley. “They were able to put their knowledge into action and meet CBF professionals for career connections.”
A second major planting occurred a week later as part of a habitat creation project at a pond site located just outside Lexington. Property owners Charles and Susan Barger, in full cooperation with Charles Barger & Sons, were keen to plant more trees for wildlife and began discussing plans with Boxerwood last fall. Since the site is within walking distance from Maury River Middle School, Boxerwood led several groups of after-school (YAS) students to the site last December. The groups planted several dozen trees, but there were hundreds to go.
Additional help arrived this spring from an unexpected source: students enrolled in National Junior Honor societies at both Lylburn Downing Middle School and Maury River Middle School. The sponsors were looking for an outdoor service project where students from both schools could help the community while also getting to know each other prior to high school. Planting trees at the pond site fit the bill.
On a cool, cloudy Friday, March 22, 65 middle-schoolers turned out to get the job done. There was a morning shift and an afternoon shift, with students assisted by Boxerwood educators, their own teachers, parent volunteers, and several hardy volunteers from the Green Hills Garden Club.
“This was our largest planting of the season,” said Johnson, explaining that Boxerwood had the students plant in small teams, to help build those social connections.
“The kids worked hard, and they loved it,” she added. “One boy told us he could have kept planting trees all day long!”
The trees for this project arrived in pots from two growout nurseries, part of existing tree stock created by children in Boxerwood’s county-wide fourth grade “Growing Native” In a unique twist, many of the trees the middle school students planted that day were in fact the very same trees that they themselves had first put into pots with Boxerwood during their elementary years.
A MEMBER of the RCHS student group Project Connections and a young friend work together to plant a native dogwood species in Boxerwood’s fairy forest.
KICKING OFF “March Madness,” scores of environmental science students from multiple RCHS classrooms put their learning into action by planting 100 trees along Union Run.
SEVENTH- and eighth-graders from Maury River and Lylburn Downing relax for a moment after a morning planting trees at Barger pond. During their full day, these students provided additional service to downtown Lexington in the afternoon, while a second shift of National Junior Honor Society students arrived at the Barger pond to complete the 100-plus tree planting.
According to Johnson, when elementary students place their bare root natives into pots in the spring of their fourth grade year, they give the trees nicknames, which Boxerwood educators write on the pots.
“During the March 22 project,” she said, “one middleschooler actually found and put into permanent Rockbridge soil the exact tree she had first befriended back in fourth grade. She was so excited!”
-The Boxerwood-grown potted natives were also used in the final two tree-planting projects.
“We had been in touch with the city of Lexington for awhile to restore some areas at Jordans Point,” said Johnson, “but we were looking for the right volunteer group.”
On Saturday, March 30, a team of students from the Washington and Lee Student Environmental Action League (SEAL) planted several riparian species along the Maury River. A separate, 4-H-sponsored project also planted numerous trees at the park that month, bringing additional synergy.
Treemania wrapped up the following Saturday with a Boxerwood-based planting thanks to another groups of youths.
Led by RCHS senior Ella Schmidt, Project Connections brings abled and differentlyabled youth together for service and fun.
“We needed some more trees at the Fairy Forest,” explained Karen Stanley, referring to a popular play spot at Boxerwood. “Many of the teens had enjoyed years at Boxerwood as younger kids,” she said, “so it was a wonderful give-back afternoon as everyone worked together. A big thank you to these volunteers as well as all the other volunteer groups this busy tree-planting season – this is important, timely and valuable work.” -Community groups interested in future garden projects are welcome to contact Stanley at karen@boxerwood. org. Those with tree planting interests are also encouraged to contact Johnson at [email protected].
Johnson is also the coordinator for COREworks, Boxerwood’s homegrown carbon offset marketplace, to which all the March Madness tree planting projects are linked.
“Now that the 244 new trees are in the ground,” she explained, “we can use our industry formulas to calculate the amount of carbon sequestered over a 20-year growth period.”
Environmentally concerned consumers can in turn secure the offsets to reduce their own carbon footprint from activities like travel (one roundtrip airflight to the West Coast equals about one metric ton per person of carbon emissions).
All proceeds from the COREworks marketplace in turn help fund additional carbon offset projects in Rockbridge, including more tree planting.
In addition to all the other ecological and civic benefits, said Johnson, the “March Madness” suite of projects is anticipated to sequester at least 16 tons of carbon. For more information or to secure a tax-deductible offset, visit www.coreworks.boxerwood. org.
WITH THEIR MISSION accomplished, the afternoon shift of RCHS students at the Union Run tree planting pause for a group photo before the rains moved in. According to Boxerwood educators, the project not only connected the youth to watershed and climate science and related careers, but also aimed to strengthen a sense of individual and collective self-efficacy among the teens.
MEMBERS of the W&L Student Environmental Action Lead (SEAL) take a bow after planting additional native trees along the Maury River at Jordans Point. In future years, the trees and many others will help stabilize the area during floods while also providing additional shade and habitat for the river and its creatures.
LED BY BOXERWOOD, students from the W&L student environmental club planted sycamores and other riparian species along key sections of Jordans Point this spring.
