“The most important thing I’ve learned is that little things can make a big difference,” reflected Buena Vista teen James Miller. The experience Miller described was a 3-week paid internship to help launch a new project called BV Cool Trees. Funded as part of a grant secured by Boxerwood in partnership with the City of Buena Vista, the goal of this 3-year project is to increase the tree canopy in the City with the annual internship a key component. And while Miller may have modestly described his actions as “little things,” the accomplishments of the 6-person team were anything but small.
“We know that teens can – and want to – help their communities thrive,” said Catherine Epstein, who along with Boxerwood educator Ginny Johnson facilitated the internship.. “This project is a vehicle for young people to step forth as builders, community connectors, public speakers, and environmental leaders,” she said.
Based at the Ramsey Center in downtown Buena Vista, the internship was guided by one essential question: “How can we help our community understand and engage with BV Cool Trees?” To tackle that challenge, the Parry McCluer HS teens undertook a range of conversations, projects, questions, skill-building experiences, and research.
The interns began their work with a task at the heart of BV Cool Trees: preparing a new tree nursery at Enderly Heights Elementary. Over three days, the team transformed an underutilized school garden into a functioning and orderly grow-out station for more than one hundred native tree seedlings. To prep the nursery, the teens weeded and covered the garden beds with leaf mulch, installed landscape cloth and wood chips, then added dogwoods to the inventory. The trees will eventually be distributed free of charge to residents as part of BV Cool Trees, which is funded by the Virginia Department of Forestry, with additional support from federal IRA funds.
During their internship, the PMHS teens also built knowledge about the value of trees. As part of the service-learning, the interns researched the benefits of trees on three fronts: ecological, social-emotional, and as an element of green infrastructure.
As the interns learned, trees have the capacity to cool down their surroundings far more efficiently than the shade of buildings or patios. Trees also provide shelter and food for wildlife, soak up stormwater, and manage erosion. In addition to these ecological benefits, the teens learned trees have significant effects on our emotions as well. Communities with more trees, for example, enjoy a reduction in stress, an increase in empathy and civic pride, a decrease in loneliness, and even a longer life expectancy. Beyond these local benefits, the young researchers learned that trees help capture and store carbon dioxide, which helps to reduce the harmful effects of climate change. “In short,” noted Catherine, “the interns learned that trees really are superheroes in our communities.”
Integrated into the program were career connections as well. To this end, the Tree Team traveled to Mountain Gateway Community College to learn about forestry careers. They toured BV’s commercial and residential streets with a certified arborist. They met with several USFS professionals. The interns also spoke with BV’s Director of Community Development Tom Roberts, who shared his hopes for the project as part of the City’s productive revitalization efforts. As a capstone, they also video conferenced with a landscape architect whose firm, the Green Infrastructure Center, is providing no-cost technical assistance to the City for the project.
After acquiring this multifaceted knowledge, the interns commenced another aspect of the project: hometown outreach. In a series of what the group called Community Conversations, the teens spoke with librarians, business owners, religious leaders, educators, and others to build awareness of BV Cool Trees, explain its value, and gauge stakeholder interest.
As it turned out, knowledge flowed both ways – the interns also gained valuable insights from each interview. “What made these conversations so fruitful,” noted Catherine, “was the interns’ growing understanding of the project’s complexity. Any public endeavor – even one as seemingly simple as planting trees – involves these layers of needs and restrictions and desires. It was valuable for the high schoolers to learn that first-hand. It was also a wonderful opportunity for teens to connect with community leaders in such a collaborative way. The teens’ confidence grew with each interaction.”
That confidence culminated in a public presentation on June 27 for members of the Buena Vista community including local government and school administration officials. During the presentation, the teens offered specific recommendations that arose from their experiences. They advised the City to work with experts to be sure that the new trees are not just properly planted but sustainably maintained. They also encouraged officials to protect existing trees whenever possible, and to plant native species to support local ecology and wildlife. Finally, they wanted their community – including other young people – to be empowered as enthusiastic partners in future tree care and plantings.
While the 60-hour internship has now concluded, enthusiasm for the project continues. “All of the young trees in the Enderly nursery need to be watered throughout the summer,” explained Catherine.. “We expected that perhaps one intern might be interested in that job, but in fact they all were. They were so excited that we wound up splitting the weeks to make sure each high schooler had a chance to help out.”
In addition to tending the nursery, the Tree Team will also be staffing a table at Mountain Day in October, talking with community members about BV Cool Trees and distributing informational brochures they created. It’s likely they’ll also have a hand in planting some of the new trees in the upcoming year – not to mention another internship opportunity next June.
While these developments are exciting for both Boxerwood and the City of Buena Vista, organizers noted that the program’s roots reached deeper still. This pilot program transformed how six hard-working teens thought of themselves, their communities, and their capacity for making a difference. In the words of one intern, “I learned that being open to new things can make you change, and not just how you see trees. It can change your personality and how you feel…it can create a new you.”
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