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New Improvements: NEWTS & PlayTrail

Catherine Epstein


Much needed renovations plans are in the works for two iconic Boxerwood features in 2025: our much beloved PlayTrail and NEWTS, our innovative Nature-Emulating Wastewater Treatment System. Overseeing both projects is Hannah West, who assumed a new position as Boxerwood’s Operations Director earlier this year. 


PlayTrail rehabilitation projects include reinforcing and replacing areas of the perimeter fencing to make it more sturdy, removing dead areas from the Willow Tunnel and replacing them with new plantings, ensuring the pump works effectively at Dale’s Creek, moving the Mud Kitchen pump for better drainage and tree health, and building new signage for the PlayTrail entrance. All of this hard work is well worth it, says Hannah. As she explained, “We’re putting so much effort and energy into the PlayTrail because it’s such a beloved feature of the garden.”


Boxerwood will also be rehabilitating NEWTS, its Nature-Emulating Wastewater Treatment System, which uses natural processes for cleaning all our wastewaters to Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality discharge standards. The plan is to work with professional experts to help ensure that all elements of the system – put into operation almost 20 years ago – continue functioning as they should. In a gratifying footnote, one of the local experts providing consultation recently mentioned that local first-time home buyers often express the desire for a system “like NEWTS” on their property, after first learning about NEWTS during 4th grade programs at Boxerwood! The goal of the rehabilitation, explained Hannah, is to get this effective and inspiring system “to a place where it can easily continue for another 20 years.”


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