Campus Foragers’ Forest turns 1

This month the organizers of the Foragers’ Forest on George Mason University’s Fairfax Campus marked the project’s first anniversary with the planting of endangered American chestnut trees.

The five hybrid American chestnuts were grown on campus from seeds and are part of the university’s partnership with the American Chestnut Foundation to restore American chestnuts to the environment, said George Mason alumna Sarah Roth, who planned the edible forest as a master’s student with Professor Dann Sklarew of the Department of Environmental Science and Policy and Doni Nolan, Greenhouse and Gardens program manager.

“Chestnuts went through a pretty bad blight in the early 1900s,” said Roth, who graduated in May and now works as a landscape architect for Fairfax County’s stormwater planning division. “As a result, they became functionally extinct in the wild. So we are trying to help restore this species back into our natural environment.”

In November 2023, George Mason students, faculty, and staff gathered to help transplant 1,700 plants of more than 50 native species into two groves near the stream behind Student Union Building I between Aquia Creek Lane and Patriot Circle, on what used to be the site of the Student Apartments, which were razed in 2018.

In the past year, Roth, Sklarew, and Nolan have worked to build volunteer and curricular engagement with the young forest.

“We have several professors who are including the Foragers' Forest in their classes this fall,” Roth said. “The forest was also recently approved as a volunteer site for Fairfax Master Naturalists, so we'll be welcoming community volunteers.”

The event was also an opportunity for people to check out the site, with plants that are thriving despite the drought the area experienced this summer. Roth and colleagues provided supplemental watering to help support the young trees.

“Considering that we just went through a pretty bad drought this summer, the groves look great,” said Roth.