This month Boxerwood opened its nursery to 300+ babies -- not human babies, but native trees. The tiny oaks, maples, sycamores, and dogwoods arrived over a 10-day period, unloaded by the van-full by our Boxerwood educators after trips to local schools. The great influx arose from our annual school project, Growing Native, an action component of our 4th grade watershed curriculum.
How does it work? Every spring Boxerwood facilitates at local schools a giant “plant up” for hundreds of tiny tree whips secured from the VA Dept. of Forestry. The 4th graders meet, greet, and settle the whips into pots, gather basic data--and bestow nicknames for their trees. Then we whisk all the bundles of joy to Boxerwood.
With help from volunteers, we will tend the trees for a year or two. We’ll then return the trees to the students when both are bigger and stronger and ready to save the world via community planting projects along local creeks.
Henceforth everyone will go on with their lives, including each of those native trees. Day after day, year after year, these trees will sequester carbon, prevent soil erosion, keep our water clean, provide wildlife habitat, and more. That’s quite a legacy from a 9-year old’s hands.
