City of Baton Rouge awarded TREE CITY USA designation for 2018

June 6, 2019 – Baton Rouge, LA – Road­side signs will soon go up near the Baton Rouge Met­ro­pol­i­tan Air­port and in down­town announc­ing to cit­i­zens and vis­i­tors that the City of Baton Rouge has achieved the cov­et­ed title of Tree City USA from the Arbor Day Foun­da­tion. After a long hia­tus, Baton Rouge was able to be named a Tree City for the year of 2017, and now con­firmed again for 2018.

“For 30 years, all mem­bers of Baton Rouge Green have cared for the future of this Earth, as well as the future of this city,” said May­or-Pres­i­dent Sharon Broome. ​“The Tree City award rep­re­sents a pas­sion­ate con­tri­bu­tion to peace, pros­per­i­ty, and progress that will impact Baton Rouge for gen­er­a­tions to come.”

More than 3,400 com­mu­ni­ties have made the com­mit­ment to becom­ing a Tree City USA. Tree City USA sta­tus is achieved by meet­ing four core stan­dards of sound urban forestry management:

1. Main­tain­ing a tree board or department
2. Hav­ing a com­mu­ni­ty tree ordinance
3. Spend­ing at least $2 per capi­ta on urban forestry, and
4. Cel­e­brat­ing Arbor Day. Baton Rouge Green holds an annu­al Arbor Day Cel­e­bra­tion to this end on the third Fri­day of Jan­u­ary each year. May­or Broome has pub­licly declared this date Arbor Day for the past two years of her administration.

Appli­ca­tions and doc­u­men­ta­tion required for Tree City USA were com­plet­ed by the City of Baton Rouge with assis­tance from Baton Rouge Green, a local non-prof­it ded­i­cat­ed to the plant­i­ng and sus­tain­ing of com­mu­ni­ty trees and green spaces.

Learn more about the Tree City USA pro­gram here.