Spring peepers. Robins. Earth Day.

If it’s April, it’s also the season of a favorite community tradition, Woods Creek Restoration Day.

Woods Creek Restoration -- ongoing since 2002! The City of Lexington, in partnership with Rockbridge County, the Boxerwood Education Association, and Washington and Lee University, has taken the lead in promoting water quality improvement activities for the Woods Creek Watershed. Within Lexington, six rain gardens have been incorporated into an entrance corridor beautification project along South Main Street. Other projects include the construction of an extended bioretention pond in a residential neighborhood and a number of streambank stabilization projects along Woods Creek, some located on the campus of Washington and Lee University. These very successful community action days have resulted in volunteers planting over 4,000 native trees and shrubs.

Funds and support for these projects have come from numerous sources including the Virginia Department of Forestry, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, the National Wildlife Federation, Lexington Tree Board, Natural Bridge Soil and Water Conservation District, Historic Lexington Foundation, and the National Fish and Wildlife Federation, along with Boxerwood Education Association, Washington and Lee University, Rockbridge Area Conservation Council and the City of Lexington and grants from the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Small Grants Program.

Middle schoolers plant a rain garden

VMI Cadets install a new riparian buffer