Old South Baton Rouge, 2010

In August of 2010, Baton Rouge Green began attend­ing com­mu­ni­ty meet­ings of the South Civic Group at the Leo S. But­ler Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­ter. BRG found enthu­si­as­tic com­mu­ni­ty activists from through­out Old South Baton Rouge and was chal­lenged to select a con­cen­trat­ed area for plant­i­ng from among the many pos­si­ble sites. BRG coor­di­nat­ed with the Baran­co-Clark YMCA, cre­at­ing a plant­i­ng plan for their new­ly installed play­ground area while arrang­ing to use their site the stag­ing area for the project. The YMCA received flow­er­ing, ever­green and fruit trees for its out­door area — to be com­pli­ment­ed by the instal­la­tion of a com­mu­ni­ty gar­den by oth­er com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions. BRG recruit­ed 37 mem­bers of the LSU Black Stu­dent Union to plant the 35 total trees. The LSU stu­dents were trained on prop­er plant­i­ng and mulching meth­ods and then were shut­tled through­out the imme­di­ate neigh­bor­hood to plant the remain­ing trees. Sev­er­al res­i­dents on Peach Street received fruit­ing and flow­er­ing trees, a com­mu­ni­ty gar­den received fruit trees, and a church and Head Start cen­ter were also plant­ed. BRG worked with the Cen­ter for Plan­ning Excel­lence and the South Gar­den Project to iden­ti­fy some of the plant­i­ng locations.