Louisiana Arbor Day is January 18! See what we’re up to…

Jan­u­ary is prime tree-plant­i­ng sea­son for Louisiana’s cli­mate, and Baton Rouge Green has teed up sev­er­al plant­i­ng projects and a cul­mi­nat­ing lun­cheon to cel­e­brate Louisiana’s Arbor Day on Jan­u­ary 18. The plant­i­ngs are being imple­ment­ed through a vari­ety of part­ner­ships that Baton Rouge Green con­tin­ues to fos­ter with oth­er orga­ni­za­tions in the Cap­i­tal Region, includ­ing The Walls Project, BREC, Cox Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, and the For­eign Lan­guage Aca­d­e­m­ic Immer­sion Mag­net school (FLAIM).

Arbor Day is a nation­al­ly cel­e­brat­ed obser­vance that encour­ages tree plant­i­ng and care. While Nation­al Arbor Day is the last Fri­day in April each year, Louisiana cel­e­brates Arbor Day on the third Fri­day in Jan­u­ary annu­al­ly to coin­cide with our most pro­duc­tive plant­i­ng time dur­ing Win­ter. Trees plant­ed in Louisiana’s cold weath­er months are more like­ly to estab­lish and be healthy in the long run, aid­ed by cool­er tem­per­a­tures and increased rain­fall, well ahead of the hot, often dri­er sum­mer season.

“Baton Rouge Green has always made Jan­u­ary, the month sur­round­ing Louisiana’s Arbor Day, a cel­e­bra­to­ry time of out­reach, edu­ca­tion and plant­i­ng. Now, with the rela­tion­ships we have made with groups like The Walls Project and BREC, and pri­vate part­ners like Cox Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and Cit­i­zens Bank & Trust, we can pull togeth­er plant­i­ngs and events with more reach, larg­er impact, and involv­ing more com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers,” says Sage Foley, Exec­u­tive Director.

“The thrill of teach­ing school chil­dren how to plant a tree, see­ing hun­dreds of vol­un­teers work togeth­er for the bet­ter­ment of Baton Rouge dur­ing MLK Fest, and mak­ing spe­cial mem­o­ries with our com­mu­ni­ty make this our favorite month of the year at Baton Rouge Green.”

Baton Rouge Green’s Arbor Day-inspired projects will include sup­port­ing the first phase of instal­la­tion for a com­mu­ni­ty farm con­cept being led by The Walls Project. Locat­ed at BREC’s How­ell Park on Win­bourne Avenue, Baton Roots will serve as an oasis for the Baton Rouge food desert by blend­ing hands-on gar­den­ing, edu­ca­tion, and cre­ative place­mak­ing to inspire a cul­ture of health and well­ness through­out the com­mu­ni­ty. The pro­gram, in part­ner­ship with Healthy BR, will host 4 acres of farm­land, includ­ing a cit­rus orchard pro­vid­ed by Baton Rouge Green’s City Cit­rus program.

The farm will be unveiled dur­ing the fifth annu­al MLK Fest 2019 (Jan­u­ary 18 – 21) as a part of the Walls Project’s city-wide beau­ti­fi­ca­tion effort on Win­bourne Avenue. In addi­tion to the orchards to be plant­ed, Baton Rouge Green has been instru­men­tal in design­ing the com­mu­ni­ty gar­dens, as well as over­see­ing the vol­un­teer-led plant­i­ng of 22 pine trees dur­ing MLK Fest 2019.

In addi­tion, Baton Rouge Green will be lead­ing a plant­i­ng on the grounds of FLAIM’s cam­pus at the cor­ner of Bawell Street and Nairn Dri­ve on Jan­u­ary 15 with sup­port from Cox Com­mu­ni­ca­tions. FLAIM par­ents and stu­dents, Baton Rouge Green vol­un­teers and dozens of Cox Com­mu­ni­ca­tions employ­ees will install 28 trees. Cox is pro­vid­ing paid time for their employ­ees to vol­un­teer, donat­ing the trees being installed, and pro­vid­ing a cel­e­bra­to­ry lunch after the plant­i­ng for the approx­i­mate­ly 50+ vol­un­teers expect­ed. The trees select­ed for the cam­pus include Oaks, Mag­no­lias, Bald­cy­press, Spruce Pine, Gink­go, and Chi­nese Pis­tache, mir­ror­ing FLAIM’s local roots and inter­na­tion­al perspective.

“With enter­prise-wide goals such as zero waste to land­fill by 2024 and car­bon and water neu­tral­i­ty by 2044, Cox remains com­mit­ted to not only being a respon­si­ble cor­po­rate cit­i­zen, but we believe it’s just as impor­tant that our employ­ees com­mit them­selves to the con­ser­va­tion of our com­mu­ni­ties,” says Antho­ny Pope, region man­ag­er and senior vice pres­i­dent of Cox South­east Region. ​“Sup­port­ing Baton Rouge Green’s mis­sion to sus­tain the cap­i­tal area’s trees and green spaces is a win-win part­ner­ship for Baton Rouge’s ecosys­tem and citizens.”

Also dur­ing Jan­u­ary, a 15-gal­lon White Oak (Quer­cus alba) will be plant­ed in mem­o­ry of John Melan­con, founder of Riv­er Road Cof­fees who passed away in Octo­ber 2018, on the cam­pus of St. Jean Vian­ney Catholic Church. This memo­r­i­al tree plant­i­ng was donat­ed by Bev­er­ly Del­mas and her group, ​“Toot­sie & Friends,” to ​“hon­or John, who was an out­stand­ing Baton Rouge cit­i­zen and role model.”

Final­ly, Baton Rouge Green’s sup­port­ers will cel­e­brate 2019 Louisiana Arbor Day with a lun­cheon spon­sored by Annette Bar­ton & Mal­com Tuck­er, Claire & Richard Man­ship, and Cit­i­zens Bank & Trust at LSU’s Rur­al Life Muse­um at Bur­den Muse­um & Gar­dens. Author and pho­tog­ra­ph­er Bill Guion will be the keynote speak­er, shar­ing his stun­ning pho­tog­ra­phy and the his­tor­i­cal tales sur­round­ing some of Louisiana’s old­est Live Oaks. May­or-Pres­i­dent Sharon West­on Broome will present the Arbor Day Procla­ma­tion. Lunch will be catered by Heir­loom Cuisine.

All dates and infor­ma­tion for Baton Rouge Green’s Arbor Day-inspired activ­i­ties are below.

PLANT­I­NG at Walls Project’s Baton Roots farm

Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 19

Baton Roots com­mu­ni­ty farm, How­ell Park on Win­bourne Avenue

Baton Rouge Green will over­see the vol­un­teer plant­i­ng of 22 pines trees as part of Phase I instal­la­tion of Baton Roots, in con­junc­tion with The Walls Project’s MLK Fest 2019.

PLANT­I­NG at FLAIM spon­sored by COX

Tues­day, Jan­u­ary 15

FLAIM cam­pus (Baton Rouge For­eign Lan­guage Aca­d­e­m­ic Immer­sion Mag­net)
4510 Bawell Street

9am – Noon

Stu­dents, par­ents and Baton Rouge Green staff, along with dozens of vol­un­teers from Cox Com­mu­ni­ca­tions will install 28 trees on the school’s cam­pus. Cox has gath­ered dozens of employ­ees to vol­un­teer for the plant­i­ng, donat­ed the funds for the trees, and will be prepar­ing a post-plant­i­ng lunch for all volunteers.

Memo­r­i­al Plant­i­ng in hon­or of John Melan­con, Founder of Riv­er Road Coffees

Pri­vate

St. Jean Vian­ney Catholic Church

Gift­ed by Bev­er­ly Del­mas and her group, ​“Toot­sie & Friends”

BATON ROUGE GREEN’S 2019 LOUISIANA ARBOR DAY CELEBRATION

Fri­day, Jan­u­ary 18

LSU Rur­al Life Muse­um at Bur­den Muse­um & Gardens

11:30 am – 1pm

Baton Rouge Green’s Arbor Day Cel­e­bra­tion is made pos­si­ble with gen­er­ous sup­port from Annette Bar­ton & Mal­colm Tuck­er, Richard & Claire Man­ship and Cit­i­zens Bank & Trust.

Advance reser­va­tions for the Arbor Day Lun­cheon are required. Table spon­sor­ships and indi­vid­ual tick­ets are avail­able from the Baton Rouge Green office at 225.381.0037. Indi­vid­ual tick­ets are $75, Table Spon­sor­ships are $800 and include 8 seats. Email us to reserve your spot at info@​batonrougegreen.​com!