Earth Sangha

DC area wild plant nursery: Propagation from the wild of about 320 plant species native to the Greater Washington, DC region for use in local ecological restoration projects. All stock is local ecotype (propagated directly from local while native plant populations). Some of these species are rare, either locally or on the state level;we are propagating them at the request of local government agencies, for use on their restoration sites. Our plants are also used in our own projects and in those those of other nonprofits, "Friends of" groups, individual restorationists, as well as goverment agencies managing local parkland and schoolyards. During 2023 about 65,563 native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants were distributed from the nursery to local forests, meadows, and maintained landscapes.

DC-area forest and meadow restoration: on-going work at the 20-acre Marie Butler Leven Preserve in Faifax County, Virginia. During 2023, we donated and installed 619 native herbaceous and woody plants. We hosted a combination of small, regular field events for our own volunteers, and large one-ff events with student groups and Eagle Scouts. All told, we estimate that 134 volunteers invested some 237 hours in Marie Butler Leven during 2023. Some of this labor was devoted to the planting efforts just mentioned, but most of it was devoted to the control of invasive alien vegetation, which is a major problem at this park and many others in our region. We hosted similar projects at 6 other Fairfax County Parks. ALONG DEWEYS CREEK, WE PARTNERED WITH PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY TO INSTALLED 1,380 NATIVE TREES, SHRUBS, AND HERBACEOUS PLANTS IN A SERIES OF DEER EXCLOSURES AS A PART OF OUR HABITAT REFUGE PROGRAM. AT GREEN SPRINGS GARDENS, WE INSTALLED 749 HERBACEOUS PLANTS IN A MEADOW PLANTING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE FAIRFAX COUNTY PARK AUTHORITY. THIS PLANTING INCLUDED A NUMBER OF RARE SPECIES AND SPECIES BECOMING HARDER TO FIND IN THE WILD.AT LAKE FAIRFAX PARK, WE PLANTED 416 SHRUBS, SMALL TREES, AND WARM-SEASON GRASSES IN A MEADOW/ FOREST-EDGE PLANTING. ALL PLANTS WERE PROTECTED WITH CAGES FROM DEER BROWSE. THIS PROJECT IS PART OF AN ON-GOING EFFORT TO RESTORE NATIVE MEADOWS TO LAKE FAIRFAX PARK IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE FAIRFAX COUNTY PARK AUTHORITYALONG LITTLE HUNTING CREEK, WE WORKED PARTNERED WITH THE NORTHERN VIRGINIA CONSERVATION TRUST AND FRIENDS OF LITTLE HUNTING CREEK TO REMOVE INVASIVE SPECIES AND REPLANT WITH NATIVES ALONG A RIPARIAN BUFFER. WE INSTALLED A TOTAL OF 443 TREES, SHRUBS, AND HERBACEOUS PLANTS TO AUGMENT THE EXISTING OAK SAVANNAH ON SITE.AT MASON DISTRICT PARK, WE WORKED WITH VOLUNTEERS AND STUDENT GROUPS TO REMOVE INVASIVE VINES FROM THE FOREST-EDGES AND UNDERSTORY. THIS WORK WAS FOLLOWED UP WITH A SERIES OF PLANTINGS OF NATIVE OAKS, HICKORIES, VIBURNUMS, AND OTHER NATIVE WOODY AND HERBACEOUS SPECIES VALUABLE TO WILDLIFE. IN TOTAL, WE INSTALLED 200 NATIVE TREES, SHRUBS, AND HERBACEOUS PLANTS IN TWO DEER EXCLOSURES AS A PART OF OUR HABITAT REFUGE PROGRAM. MASON DISTRICT PARK IS A FAIRFAX COUNTY PARK AUTHORITY DISTRICT PARK THAT LIES WITHIN A JUSTICE 40 AREA, AN AREA IDENTIFIED AS A DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITY WHICH IS MARGINALIZED, UNDERSERVED, AND OVERBURDENED BY POLLUTION BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENTS CLIMATE AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE SCREENING TOOL.AT RUTHERFORD PARK, WE PLANTED ABOUT 240 HERBACEOUS AND WOODY PLANTS AND CUT AWAY INVASIVES OVER ABOUT HALF AN ACRE OF THE PARK'S RIPARIAN ZONE.

Tree Bank Hispaniola: Operation of community tree nursery and associated forest-conservation and tree-planting programs on the dominican side of a portion of the Dominican Republic - Haiti Border, to slow deforestation and help small-holder farmers increase their incomes. During 2023, about 67 farms participated. Program activities were somewhat constrained because of unusually heavy rains and a local labor shortage but we still managed to produce and plant about 23,461 orchard, timber, and lcoal-ecotype native tree seedlings; 7 native species were represented, all of them probably in decline in the wild, our forest credit program, in which our local independent partner organization (the asociacion de productores de bosque, los cerezos)) extends low-cost credit to small-holder farmers in exchange for pledges. To conserve forest - that credit program lent about $37,600 to 54 farms, in exchange for pledges covering about 353 acres of forest. ((The pledges are held by our Dominican partner organization.) Our 44.3-acre nature reserve, the region's only community-owned nature reserve, is protecting the headwaters of a village water supply. Our rising forests coffee program is rehabilitating the region's shade-grown coffee, in the wake of the coffee leaf-rust epidemic of 2014-15; the epidemic killed virtually all of the region's coffee trees. Rising forests is producing rust- resistant coffee trees for planting on local farms, as well as cocoa trees. Both cofee and cocoa are high-value crops that grow best under forest canopy, so our program is creating a powerful economic incentive to convserve forest, and we are continuing to restore additional patches of forest for underplanting with coffee and cocoa.