The following text was sent out via email on September 22, 2022. Sign up for PEC email alerts →
Dear Supporter,
We often think of springtime as planting season, but fall is actually the best time to plant native trees and perennials! Planting them now gives roots time to establish over the winter and allows the trees to have an extra growing season before the stress of summer heat returns.
As PEC’s Tree Planting and Stewardship Coordinator, I’d like to invite you to join our conservation team this fall to plant native trees and shrubs along waterways in the Virginia Piedmont. We’re looking for volunteers to help out on four different days in October and November in Clarke, Fauquier and Rappahannock counties. *Scroll down for dates and links to sign up!
And if you can’t make it out to a tree planting, you can still help out our tree planting initiative at local Orvis stores! Now through the end of September, when you spend at least $10 in-store at the Orvis in Arlington, Leesburg, Tysons Corner or Woodbridge, Orvis will donate $10 to PEC’s tree planting efforts as a part of their #GivebackDays. Customers can also enter their name into a free raffle to win three prizes, including a private fishing trip on a local trout stream! Learn more >>
Fall 2022 Volunteer Event Details
Tree plantings are a fun way to give back, and also provide long-term benefits to our environment, from flood protection and water filtration to carbon sequestration and habitat for wildlife. Our upcoming tree plantings are on properties in the Rappahannock and Potomac watersheds. These are part of the larger Chesapeake Bay watershed, which provides drinking water for 13 million people across six states — New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. So planting trees here not only protects and improves local waterways, but also helps restore a resource we share across the region!
Through October and November, PEC and partners will be hosting four separate plantings at private properties in Clarke, Fauquier and Rappahannock counties. These include:
Bonny Brook Farm, Fauquier County
Thurs., Oct. 13 @ 10 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Volunteers are needed for one shift to help plant 55 native trees and shrubs along Cedar Run.
Long Branch Farm, Clarke County
Mon., Oct. 31 @ 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. and 12:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Volunteers are needed for two shifts to help plant 270 native trees and shrubs along Long Branch.
Lane Property, Rappahannock County
Weds., Nov. 9 @ 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. and 1:30 – 4 p.m.
Volunteers are needed for two shifts to help plant 330 native trees and shrubs along a tributary of Kilby’s Creek.
Clermont Farm, Clarke County
Sat., Nov. 12 @ 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Volunteers are needed for two shifts to help plant 300 native trees and shrubs along Dog Run.
These volunteer plantings are part of our Rappahannock Headwater Stream Initiative and Potomac Planting Program, which provide free technical assistance, project design, materials, and labor for the planting of native trees and shrubs in riparian zones on qualifying properties.
Interested in participating in one of our tree planting programs in 2023? Landowners can learn more and sign up at pecva.org/buffers.
Hope you can make it out to one of the tree plantings or support the effort through a purchase at the [relist the four Orvis locations] Orvis!
Sincerely,
Linnea Stewart
Tree Planting & Stewardship Coordinator
lstewart@pecva.org
P.S. I wanted to give a special shout out to the other organizations who have made this work possible! Thanks to our partners at Friends of the Rappahannock (who launched the Headwater Stream Initiative with us back in 2016), local Soil and Water Conservation Districts (John Marshall, Loudoun, Culpeper and Lord Fairfax), the Virginia Department of Forestry, and Goose Creek Association. Funding has been provided by a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund and Small Watershed Grant, Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund, Virginia Environmental Endowment, Lykes Fund of Northern Piedmont Community Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Rappahannock Electric Cooperative and PEC’s Krebser Fund for Rappahannock County Conservation.