Programs
local students every year.
Boxerwood students monitor local streams, tackle soil erosion, create bird habitat, clean-up river banks, grow & plant native trees, raise & release native trout, recycle school waste.
field-based programs for local schools every year.
into the local economy.
Program Highlights & Updates
New Native Garden
This month Boxerwood achieved a long term goal: we’ve created a new garden of native plants to beautify the approach to the Lodge, rehabilitating an area that had been largely taken over by invasive species....
Paying It Forward
Kudos to 18 Maury River Middle students, who one Friday after school last month, planted three dozen trees along a tributary of Woods Creek. Most of the students were members of the Boxerwood Bay Club,...
Join the Rumpus
Hello Rockbridge Friends! We are producing another original spectacle at Boxerwood to be performed October 14 -15, 2023 and welcome your help. A WILD NOTION is an ecological call to action and hope, concerning...
What’s For Dessert Betts?
Thank you to BEA co-founder Hunter Mohring for sharing this story about one of the pieces of artwork still lurking about Boxerwood, as created by its first gardener (and owner), Dr. Robert Munger. The first...
Another PlayTrail Wonder
The PlayTrail is Boxerwood’s little gem. Every year hundreds of children and families enjoy the sound of the babbling brook, the shade of trees, the clanging of dishes in the mud kitchen and the joy of playing...
One Plant, Many Problems
Youngia japonica March 2023 A single sunflower is actually made of many thousands of small flowers, forming a composite that is arranged to attract pollinators. Sunflowers are in the plant family Asteraceae,...
One Turtle, 421 Pledges
March 2023 We are all connected As the Early Education Coordinator I typically teach preschool to second grade students, then the “Upper Education” team takes over with the third graders. I was lucky enough to...
One Project, 434 Citizen Scientists
March 2023 This month 103 households from Buena Vista, Lexington, and Rockbridge commenced our 2023 Backyard Compost Challenge – a record. The group includes 22 families who enjoyed the project so much last...
backyard composting year three
Boxerwood Launches 3rd Annual Backyard Compost Challenge February 2023 In partnership with all three local jurisdictions, Boxerwood is once again facilitating a conservation challenge in which 80 local...
Thank you, Devan
Thank you, Devan February 2023 This month we bid farewell to Devan Malore, a Boxerwood friend to the end. More than a friend – an inspiration! If you never had the good fortune to meet Devan, quite likely you...
Coreworks Year One
Happy first birthday, COREworks! February 2023 This month marks one year since the debut of COREworks. After two years of research and planning, Boxerwood launched COREworks and its earth care mission last...
Help has Arrived
wetland restoration grant February 2023 This month, Boxerwood received a $63,000 planning grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). The NFWF award is for creating an evidence-based plan to...
Early Blooms
The Garden Awakens February 2023 Right now you will find splashes of yellow blooms throughout Boxerwood: the flowers of Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas), a member of the dogwood family native to Eastern Europe...
Mohawk, the Friend who Keeps on Giving
Quietly, over the years, Mohawk has also equipped us with the kind of things we need to get work done: a new pop-up tent for festivals, another box of water-monitoring supplies, t-shirts for our youth summit,...
Tree Planting Extravaganza
This past month Boxerwood helped facilitate two big tree-planting projects. As a result, an additional 663 native trees are now tucked in for years of beauty, being, and service....
The Gift of Good Rain
Yes, we’re crowing about it! We’d be hard pressed to find better gifts, or gifts more generously given, than those that come from the Earth. At Boxerwood we are always striving to be good stewards of these gifts....
Winter’s Windsong
It was our honor and delight to bring joy to so many people attending the Lexington Christmas parade with our entry, “Winter Windsong.” What’s the secret for building such an enchanting parade floats? A dash...
Winter Gardening
Every meeting has been a joy. On the first day of our club, after we planted the winter peas, we stood in a circle around our freshly planted patch and gave the peas kind words of encouragement to start them...
Raw Learning
Children who attend local public school enjoy years of Boxerwood programming, but what about homeschoolers? This fall we’ve found a way to connect with these learners too, thanks to a new partnership with an...
Arizona Adventure
It’s not every day we get to send a Boxerwood educator to a national conference all expenses paid.Thanks to travel-specific funding from US NOAA/B-WET, our colleague Ginny Johnson attended the annual North...
Dear Boxerwood Teachers
We’re fortunate to receive a lot of thank-you drawings, letters, and cards from children. Here’s a recent sampler in their own words (and emergent spellings). I had so much fun at Boxerwood. I loved that we...
Garden Gratitude: Japanese Maples
Autumn at Boxerwood always waters seeds of gratitude for Japanese maples. I am grateful to Dr. Munger (who started Boxerwood) and to KB (who has been planting and tending here for 40 years) for planting many...
Birding at Boxerwood
Photos courtesy of bird walk participant, Baron Schwartz. Seventeen birders ages 11 to 93 spent the past Saturday morning meandering through Boxerwood's woods and fields. Together they spotted around 30 bird...
Pumpkin Walk Magic
Between the cider donuts, the witchy dances, and the floaty jack-o-lantern trails, we couldn't decide what part of this year’s Pumpkin Walk brought us the most delight. So we asked some of the many “bigs” and...
Hooray for Volunteers
“We can’t do it without you,” goes the saying, but that’s really true here at Boxerwood. Volunteers run our board, teach our children, paint our signs, welcome our visitors, tend our woodland garden and more....
Feed the birds
After a year’s hiatus due to covid and supply issues, organizer Bonnie Bernstein is glad the annual sale is back on. “If you feed birds through the winter, this is your chance to stock up on premium seed and...
We blazed a trail
Just before the pandemic Boxerwood won a $80,000 federal grant to promote outdoor learning for underserved youth in afterschool settings. One of only 29 sites selected nationwide, Boxerwood proposed a model...
Green Career expo hits home run
The secret to an awesome expo for teens is pretty simple: all-in teachers, enthusiastic presenters, oversize chainsaws, speed dating, and squeeze cows (more about that later).During our second annual expo 200...
Bay Trip 2022
When was the last time you slapped a wave, kissed a fish, set a crab pot, and crawled through a marsh–all within 72 hours? This fall we resumed a signature program that introduces middle schoolers to the...
Calling all pumpkins
That’s the number of children we look forward to seeing this fall, based on school bookings so far. Some kids we’ll see once, some twice, some many times depending whether they’re part of a day program, an...
RESTORATIVE WALKS
As a contribution to community well-being, Boxerwood is offering a free series of “Restorative Walks” this fall....
3,047 & COUNTING
That’s the number of children we look forward to seeing this fall, based on school bookings so far. Some kids we’ll see once, some twice, some many times depending whether they’re part of a day program, an...
Virginia Tax Credits for BEF
Thank you to everyone for supporting Boxerwood with your gifts and goodwill. As our new fiscal year opens and our Education Appeal is about to launch, we wanted to alert our readership of an annual opportunity...
Summer Camp Photos 2022
It’s camp season! This month we’re connecting all sorts of kids (200+) to all sorts of outdoor fun....
Our Spring Circus
Spring is a short, intense program season at Boxerwood. Unlike the longer, more leisurely and docile fall, spring is a sprint, a leap, and a dodge. Sleet, heat, frost, thunder, rainstorms, and SOL testing – we...
Let’s Go Fly Fishing
In an elegant arc of serendipity, Boxerwood was able to facilitate a first-ever Fly-Fishing Club at Maury River MS this spring. Fly-fishing expert (and MRMS history teacher) Zachary Dishman (pictured above)...
Actual Poems, in Motion
The motion we’re thinking about goes from heart to hand to paper – and sometimes sticks (we’ll get to that). This spring several young children arrived at Boxerwood clutching poems they had spontaneously...
Eco Speed Dating
Whatever it was, it worked. On May 16 Boxerwood hosted a first-ever Green Career Expo for more than a hundred environmental science students at RCHS. Responding to teacher request, we put out the call. Two...
COREworks Connections
“Working with COREworks this semester reinforced my dedication to be an engaged, environmental citizen,” said the Connecticut native. “The COREworks mission and values showcased to me that my aware,...
We Took the Ton-for-Ton Challenge
Boxerwood’s innovative carbon offset marketplace (COREworks) is open for business. Recently we asked several “early adopters” what motivated them to secure COREworks offsets. Natural Bridge residents Wendelin...
Tending Soil & Soul
How many people does it take to help a camp thrive? Last week 22 young children spent their spring break at Boxerwood, investigating the marvels of the earth beneath our feet in our “Soil Sleuths” camp....
Children Revive Recycling
Fairfield Elementary enjoyed a successful student-run recycling program several years back. Changes in county hauling contracts, however, scuttled those efforts, and schools stopped recycling. This change did...
Middle School Students Tackle Food Waste
This fall two Boxerwood educators have been exploring this question with students enrolled at a 7th grade garden ecology class at...
Children’s Bird Club Takes Flight
You’re never too young to enjoy birds and help them thrive. In tandem with the Rockbridge Bird Club, we launched an 8-week Bird Club this fall with a dozen eager children from Central Elementary School....
Growing Future FOrests Together
Over thirty Boxerwood-recruited volunteers who collectively (and joyfully!) planted 325 native trees over two Saturdays this month....
Athletes GEAR Up and Give Back
This fall, eight W&L sports teams added earth stewardship to their commitments as part of a new partnership between W&L Athletics and COREworks, our new Boxerwood initiative....
Moveable forest
If you’ve wandered around Boxerwood this fall, you might have noticed our tree nursery bursting with life. The nursery was recently home to more than 250 native tree seedlings...
A Week of Programs: A Dozen Snapshots
Many folks contributed to our successful educational appeal so we thought you’d like to see what’s happening with your heart-felt investments....
The Boxerwood Nursery Fills Up
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...
Spring PALS Befriend Birds
Our all-volunteer board of directors carry the ultimate responsibility for ensuring the Boxerwood ship sails. They approve plans, review the books, set the policies, run committees, and more....
BEA explores AmeriCorps partnership
Planning grant in hand, “we are looking at a Virginia program called AmeriCorps State. This program funds full-time members in direct services like teaching, tutoring, planting trees, etc.” says Elise....
Outdoor PALS and the making of Stick City
When you were a kid did you have a special place in the woods? A place where you could be anybody? A place where you could build a town out of sticks and leaves became money, and time flew by? A place that...
Teens Tackle Trail
Do you know many teenagers who would willingly wake up and go to school on their day off? Well, you have not met the Parry McCluer Middle School Girls Trailblazers Hiking Club, led by Boxerwood. For seven...
Whoo’s Lurking in our Woods?
We spied this barred owl napping earlier this month near the Boxerwood spring house. Plenty more feathered friends call Boxerwood home too--check out what birders found on Nov. 14....
Making the World More Beautiful
After reading the inspiring children’s story of Miss Rumphius by Barbara Clooeny, a group of 3rd graders at Enderly Heights ES made their list.Their plan is to host a pop-up outdoor art show to bring happiness...
Make New Boxerwood Friends (the Feathered Kind)
Been wondering about our bird friends but not sure how to get acquainted? Starting in November the Rockbridge Bird Club members will lead Bird Walks for Beginning Birders. The Club has a plan in place to...
FALL PROGRAMS: FOLLOW THE KIDS
Where there’s a will there’s a way. With most schools closed, we had to find new ways to bring outdoor learning to children this year. With creativity, collaboration, and careful planning we have launched...
Down in the River
All our streams and rivers in Rockbridge find their way to the James, and then the Bay. As denizens of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, it’s our job to take care of our waterways, we teach the kids, and the land...
Paper Vultures
A bunch of buzzards rising on thermals is not a flock, but a kettle. When they hang out together in a tree, that’s a committee. When they partake, that’s a wake. These are some of the fun facts you forgot to...
The Frog Princes
So, we say to the 3rd grader: what can we do to help the frogs? Usually we work in small teams to plant grass on the eroded hill. But sometimes—as in this story—we become engineers: we build stick palisades...
Awesome Opossum Reads “Over and Under the Snow”
This winter seems like the winter that wasn’t, 60-degree days and rain instead of snow....
The Boxerwood Vision Tree
We talk a lot about trees at Boxerwood, to our students, our guests, and among ourselves. There are many beautiful trees at Boxerwood, ones known to be frequently, literally, hugged. But we also have a new...