Key Results, 2007-2010
2010
Tree Bank / Hispaniola
We bought a used pickup truck and put it to work at our Tree Bank Nursery, located in the northwest of the Dominican Republic, along the border with Haiti. The truck has extended our planting range and greatly improved the management of the nursery itself, since supplies are now much easier to bring in.
After more than two years of effort, we succeeded in incorporating our Tree Bank partner organization, the Asociación de Productores de Bosques, Los Cerezos. On the strength of this new official status, we started work on a coffee export program. (In our project region, coffee is grown almost exclusively in the shade, so coffee sales will be a good way to add value to forest canopy.)
We raised enough money to start our Tree Bank credit program—$15,400—but setting up the program proved more complicated than we expected and we weren’t able to make our first loans in 2010. We hope to do that in 2011.
We continued to expand the areas planted in native forest, by planting portions of our five most recently enrolled farms. By year-end, the total area planted in native trees had reached nearly 14 acres—modest but solid progress.
Washington, DC, Region
We distributed about 5,000 native, local-ecotype trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants from our Wild Plant Nursery to local parks and schoolyards. For additional 2010 developments at our DC-area nursery, see the Wild Plant Nursery page (or use this link to go directly to the Wild Plant Nursery 2010 Review.)
We signed a contract with Fairfax County, Virginia, for the provision of local-ecotype native plants—the first such contract in the County’s history. We consider this an important regional precedent because Fairfax County is so large. (Fairfax County covers about 400 square miles, is home to over a million residents, and has a budget of $3.3 billion.)
We signed a contract with the US Fish and Wildlife Service for the management of 12.5 acres of grassland at the Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, in Prince William County, Virginia. The project is intended to control invasive alien plants and improve grassland bird habitat.
We launched our first three meadow restoration projects. Meadow restoration is technically complex and we will probably fumble along for several years before we manage much, but this capability, if we can develop it, will greatly extend the benefits that we bring to local natural areas. Our new meadow projects are small; each is under an acre. Two are on Fairfax County parkland—one is at Waples Mill Park, in the Difficult Run drainage; the other is at Rutherford Park, along Long Branch Stream in the Accotink Creek drainage. The third is at the BLM’s Meadowood Recreation Area, for which see the next entry.
At Meadowood, on the Mason Neck Peninsula in southeastern Fairfax County, we continued our work on two pasture sites, amounting to just under 5 acres, where we have been reestablishing forest and woody old-field communities since 2008. (Woody oldfield is basically meadow on its way back to forest; this community type is important habitat for many plants and animals but is increasingly rare in our region.) We also launched the meadow restoration project mentioned in the previous entry.
At the Marie Butler Leven Preserve, the site of our Native Arboretum project, we extended our restoration areas by about another acre of forest in all; by year-end, the total area under management was probably approaching 5 acres. We also conducted a series of test-plot trials as part of a long-term effort to find cheaper ways to control invasive alien thicket and invasive alien groundlayer in forest.
We planted, weeded, and extended 10 Fairfax County stream-buffer sites (including the two Fairfax County meadow sites mentioned above).
As part of a brook trout restoration project run by Trout Unlimited, we planted two buffer sites along the Thornton River in Rappahannock County, Virginia. Eventually, the plantings will shade the water, helping to keep it cool enough for trout.
In our school greening activities, we supplied plants, and some advice, to eight schools.
2009
Tree Bank / Hispaniola
We enrolled five more farms in our native forest planting program, bringing the total number of farms committed to these kinds of plantings to 11 and the total area available for native forest plantings to about 14 acres (although much of this area is not yet planted).
We and our farmers have agreed in principle on a farm credit program. The program will help the farmers manage their cash crops more efficiently, while creating conservation easements on surviving native-forest fragments. We hope to start this program in 2010.
Washington, DC, Region
We distributed about 5,800 native, local-ecotype trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants from our Wild Plant Nursery to local parks and schoolyards.
In our work on stream-buffer restoration, we suppressed invasive alien vegetation and improved plantings on three buffer sites, amounting to about two acres along two-thirds of a mile of stream bank (excluding Thompson Creek, for which see the next item).
At the BLM’s Meadowood Recreation Area, we continued work on the three-quarter acre Horse Barn site, began planting our four-acre Ecological Display Site, and installed riparian forest buffer along one-third of a mile of Thompson Creek.
At the Marie Butler Leven Preserve, the site of our Native Arboretum project, we extended forest area under partial invasives control from one to over two acres and replanted about an acre and a half of understory.
In our school greening activities, we distributed plants to four schoolyard projects.
2008
Tree Bank / Hispaniola
We enriched our first six native-forest plantings with another 1,084 saplings grown at our Tree Bank Nursery.
We bought new shade cloth for the Tree Bank Nursery. The old shade cloth, which went up when the nursery was built in 2006, had been badly battered by several heavy storms. The new cloth is a tougher weave and should stand up to the weather somewhat better.
Washington, DC, Region
We distributed about 5,000 native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants from our Wild Plant Nursery to local parks and schoolyards.
In our work on the Fairfax County stream-buffer restoration program, we put in six buffer plantings on areas totaling just over 2.6 acres, and amounting to a total buffer length of about 2,000 feet.
At Wilburdale Park, in the upper Backlick Run drainage, we suppressed invasive alien plants and put in native plants on about 1.3 acres, along about 620 feet of stream. (These figures are not part of the totals in the previous item.)
At our Native Arboretum project, we extended the invasives-free Restored Habitat Area to about one full acre. We also repaired the rain garden, in collaboration with the Fairfax County Park Authority and the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District. The garden had not been draining properly, so we helped install a set of vertical drains to move water more rapidly from the surface to the depths of the garden.
At the Meadowood Recreation Area, which lies on the Mason Neck Peninsula and is owned by the Bureau of Land Management, we planted our three-quarter-acre Horse Barn Site, to extend wildlife habitat and help control stormwater runoff. Also at Meadowood, we were awarded a contract to restore about four acres of degraded pasture to forest and meadow. (Work on this project will start in spring 2009.)
2007
Tree Bank / Hispaniola
We planted about 3,000 native trees on six Dominican farms, near the Dominican Republic – Haiti border. All of the trees were propagated at our Tree Bank Nursery.
We began propagating two threatened native tree species, bringing the total number of native species in propagation at our Tree Bank Nursery to eleven.
Washington, DC, Region
We distributed over 3,000 native trees, shrubs, and herbs from our Wild Plant Nursery to various local parks and schoolyards.
We expanded our Wild Plant Nursery infrastructure to include another 6,800 square feet of container yard space and another 1,050 square feet of raised bed space.
In our work on the Fairfax County stream-buffer restoration program, we planted along roughly one mile of stream bank.
At our Naive Arboretum project in Fairfax County’s Marie Butler Leven Preserve, we removed invasive alien vegetation over nearly half an acre, to create a Restored Habitat Area—a model for our expanding invasives-control efforts in regional parkland.