News & Updates

Opequon Elementary School, located in Martinsburg, West Virginia celebrated a breezy Earth Day outside planting 16 native trees on school grounds. Two Pre-kindergarten, six kindergarten, four first grade, and six second grade classes participated in the tree planting and were taught about the environmental benefits and proper care and maintenance of the trees. Classroom teachers […]

Potomac Valley Audubon Society, a local chapter of the National Audubon Society, based out of Shepherdstown, WV, hosted their first Carla Hardy WV CommuniTree planting at Stauffer’s Marsh Nature Preserve near Hedgesville, West Virginia.  The Project Leader, KC Walters, recruited and organized volunteers throughout the local community to help plant the 24 trees awarded. In […]

Spring 2019, Warm Springs Watershed Association (WSWA) hosted a YourBMP program watershed-wide.  The Project Leader, Michael Brookes, recruited and organized interested participants that purchased trees for their homes and businesses.  This was WSWA’s second season participating in YourBMP’s Turf-to-Tree program, allowing residents 1-3 large stock trees, and businesses a maximum of twelve large stock trees. […]

Growing Native continues to grow saplings and communities throughout the Potomac River watershed. Cacapon Institute continues to support Potomac Watershed Partnership’s Growing Native program in the Potomac headwaters of West Virginia and Virginia. Through in-classroom lessons and schoolyard projects focused on growing native trees, schools have access to outdoor learning and help protect rivers and […]

Noticing a puddling “mud hole” on campus, sixth graders at Charles Town Middle School took action to extend their rain garden, fixing the puddles with native garden plants. After experiencing pooling water in the school’s courtyard, (which staff coined the “mud hole” as students continuously tracked mud into the school), sixth grade teacher Stephanie Diamond […]