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.
Three important northern-Viginia sites are featured on this page.
The Barcroft Bog, in Arlington County, is home to two rare plant communities, one of which is recognized as endangered.
The Roaches Run Waterfowl Sanctuary, also in Arlington County, is an important oasis of bird habitat amidst heavy development, and contains an interesting wetland plant community.
Wilburdale Park, a small park in Fairfax County’s Annandale section, contains important stream-buffer forest for Backlick Run, which drains about a third of the 42-square-mile Cameron Run watershed.
There are no Special Places updates at present.
Three slide shows cover the sites featured on this page:
the Barcroft Bog slide show,
the Roaches Run slide show, and
the Wilburdale Park slide show.
Our early work at Wilburdale is also covered in our booklet, Reconnecting Forests and Streams. The booklet was published in 2005.
Both Wilburdale and Roaches Run include riparian buffer plantings. For more on buffer plantings, see our Stream-Buffer page.
For recent activities on the sites described here, look at the Special Places News.
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Planting at the Barcroft Bog.
Planting at Roaches Run.
More planting at Roaches Run.
Planting at Wilburdale Park.
Clearing invasives at Wilburdale Park.
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Above: Scenes from our field work on the sites featured here.