On Feb. 25 and 26, New River Conservancy will launch the Big Plant, a massive effort to plant over 10,000 trees across 39 native species along Stroubles Creek in Blacksburg. The project will continue through March 5.
It will take place at Virginia Tech Stream Lab with the conservancy’s perennial partner, Virginia Tech Biological Systems Engineering.
Anyone and everyone is invited to come out and help with this project. Volunteers can sign up for The Big Plant on Feb. 25 and 26 at https://sites.google.com/vt.edu/thebigplant/home?pli=1.
Volunteers can sign up to plant on all other days through March 5 at https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLScy…/viewform.
Why is the New River Conservancy planting trees?
Stroubles Creek is a federally listed ‘impaired waterway.’ One of the top stressors leading to the impairment is a lack of native riparian buffers. A riparian buffer is a strip of native vegetation along a waterway that
- Improves water quality by filtering out pollutants and lowering the cost of drinking water
- Absorbs excess stormwater runoff, thus reducing the risk of catastrophic flooding
- Stabilizes stream banks and reduces erosion
- Provides vital food and habitat for terrestrial and aquatic wildlife and
- Connects fragmented ecosystems and wildlife migration corridors
A number of partners are joining to make this massive project happen:
The Virginia Department of Forestry
The Environmental Coalition at Virginia Tech
The Virginia Tech Office of Sustainability
Virginia Tech Stormwater
The Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Environment
The Virginia Tech Department of Forest Resources & Environmental Conservation
The Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
The Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
and the hundreds of volunteers who have already signed up to make this happen.