We seek peace in our own lives through meditation and the study of the Dharma (the traditional Buddhist teachings). We contribute to peace in our communities through ecological restoration, as a remedy for some of the violence done by development.
At our Wild Plant Nursery and the field sites that it serves, we work to conserve the native plant communities of the greater Washington region, home to one of the richest floras in eastern North America. Our Tree Bank / Hispaniola is conserving the forests of central Hispaniola, the richest surviving remnant of the Caribbean forest biome, a global biodiversity hotspot.
We see ecological restoration as essential to conservation because many natural areas are now too small and isolated to persist over the long term in their current state. In the greater Washington region, we are reestablishing forests and meadows on degraded sites. In central Hispaniola, our Tree Bank farmers are replanting native forest on their lands.
Our Native Arboretum project is transforming the Marie Butler Leven Preserve, a 20-acre park in McLean, Virginia, into an extensive collection of plants native to the greater Washington, DC, region.
Our objective is to create a botanical library. A broad range of native trees, shrubs, vines, and nonwoody plants will be available for viewing, accompanied by labels keyed to major field guides. The Native Arboretum will be a public resource for building ecological literacy, and for creating a stronger mandate for conservation.
The Native Arboretum project began in 2004. As you can see from the slide shows and other coverage available from this page, we have made very substantial progress. But the Preserve is heavily infested by invasive alien plants; we have had to fight the invasives for just about every square foot of area restored—and we still have an enormous amount of work to do. If you live in the DC area and would like to help, please consider volunteering!
Our Native Arboretum Project Module Map shows all of our project modules.
Native Arboretum Aerial shows the Marie Butler Leven Preserve without our project overlays.
For recent activities at the Marie Butler Leven Preserve, read the Native Arboretum News.
These two slide shows cover our work at the Preserve in recent years:
the 2010 Native Arboretum slide show, and
the 2009 Native Arboretum slide show.
For a history in pictures of our initial years at the Preserve,
look at the 2003-08 Native Arboretum slide show.
For the start of the Rain Garden,
view the 2005-08 Rain Garden slide show.
For the establishment of the Restored Habitat Area,
view the 2004-08 Restored Habitat Area slide show.
For a look at some of the Preserve's native plants,
view the Native Arboretum Native Plants slide show.
For more information on alien plant infestations at the Preserve,
look at the Native Arboretum Invasive Alien Plant List.
As with many other mid-Atlantic parks, the Preserve is heavily browsed by deer. To learn more about deer-browsing pressure, read our Backgrounder on White-Tailed Deer and Our Plant Communities.
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Planting the Rain Garden.
Soil management in the Restored Habitat Area.
Spot-weeding near the Gorge.
Planting a forest edge.
The Native Pollinator Garden in late summer.
Setting up an invasives-control test plot.
Starting work on the Meditation Garden.
Dumpster-stuffing another load of invasive slash!
Extending the Restored Habitat Area.
The Restored Habitat Area in fall.
Weeding an oak-hickory planting.
The Witch-Hazel Grove in fall.
Cutting away an invasive vine curtain.
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Above: Scenes from our work at the Native Arboretum.