Wampold & Fetzer Receive Baton Rouge Green Award at Arbor Day Luncheon January 19

Baton Rouge, LA, January 19, 2018 – For their planting of 88 mature live oaks on South Bluebonnet Boulevard, Preserve at Harveston developers John Fetzer & Mike Wampold were awarded the first Baton Rouge Green Award to be given in decades. The developers were honored during Baton Rouge Green’s 2018 Louisiana Arbor Day Celebration on Friday, January 19, at the LSU Rural Life Museum.

“In total we have probably planted over 500 trees as part of this development, and there are more phases to come and more trees to be planted,” remarked Wampold to the audience upon receiving the handmade cypress plaque.

The Baton Rouge Green Award was given to several prominent local citizens in the early 1990s who had committed extraordinary time and resources to planting and preserving our city’s urban canopy. Recipients included Steele Burden, Hays Town and Baton Rouge Green founder, Dr. Jed Morris.

In 2017 John Fetzer and Mike Wampold installed the 88 live oaks (Quercus virginiana) near their multi-phase development, which includes The Preserve at Harveston. The property had previously been used primarily for agriculture was greatly devoid of canopy. The planting involved the transport of the 9-to-12-inch caliper oaks and required special equipment, including a flatbed 18-wheeler and an enormous spade for the removal and installation of these mature oaks. The planting of the trees took over a month, with about 6 trees being transported each day from their source to the planting site. Fetzer reported that the root balls of some of these huge specimens were about 9 feet deep. The trees now line both sides of a one-mile stretch of South Bluebonnet Boulevard.

Wampold and Fetzer are both longtime supporters of Baton Rouge Green. Fetzer served on the board of directors from 1998 – 2002.

The 2018 Louisiana Arbor Day Luncheon was sponsored by Annette Barton & Malcom Tucker, Claire & Richard Manship, and Citizens Bank & Trust.

Pictured below, L-R: Luncheon Sponsor Richard Manship, John Fetzer, Mike Wampold, Luncheon Sponsor Annette Barton, BRG Executive Director Sage Roberts Foley. Pictured In Header, L-R: Luncheon Sponsor Lillian Grossley of Citizens Bank & Trust, BRG Executive Director Sage Roberts Foley, John Fetzer, Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, Mike Wampold, BRG Board President Katheryn Flournoy.