Schools: The FLAIM Campus

During the 2018 and 2019 Louisiana Arbor Day Celebrations, Baton Rouge Green helped reinvigorate the campus of the Foreign Language Academic Immersion Magnet (FLAIM) school with the planting of 34 trees across the grounds. This vibrant elementary school program took over the campus of previous East Baton Rouge Parish institutions, and the blank landscape was identified as a target for improvement by the FLAIM Parent-Teacher organization.

In 2018 BRG assisted students, teachers and parents in planting 6 lacebark elms, donated by Ducote’s Tree Farm. This initial planting helped Baton Rouge Green staff assess the site conditions and begin to plan for a larger effort.

In 2019, with the help of dozens of parents and community volunteers, and a donation from COX Communications, 28 trees in various species were planted along the property fence line adjacent to a new playground area, and lining the front walk to the school. Canopy trees planted near the playground were selected to create shade and lower temperatures, and included white oak, spruce pine, baldcypress, and sweetbay magnolia.

Framing the walkway into the school, BRG staff selected to plant a mixture of natives, such as sweetbay magnolia and baldcypress, and non-natives, such as gingko and Chinese Pistachio, in the spirit of the foreign language immersion curriculum and international orientation of the school’s mission.