Acadian Thruway Medians

True stew­ard­ship doesn’t have an expi­ra­tion date, as the pic­tures and arti­cles from the past 40 years below demonstrate.

Way back in 1990, Baton Rouge Green took on the land­scape improve­ments of the Aca­di­an Thruway medi­ans between Gov­ern­ment Street and Flori­da Blvd. in Mid­C­i­ty as one of our first projects after we were found­ed. This involved the removal of con­crete and instal­la­tion of Indi­an Hawthorne shrubs (oof) and Brad­ford Pear trees (dou­ble oof) along this busy cor­ri­dor. For 30+ years, the trees stood and pro­vid­ed shade, green­ery, blooms and at least some aes­thet­ic break in the con­crete. In 2018 it was clear that what remained of the trees on the site were well beyond their pro­duc­tive years.

So in 2019, The Baton Rouge Gen­er­al plant­ed the seed to trans­form this stretch of dying trees and con­crete and cre­ate our 22^nd active Liv­ing Road­ways site. With their gen­er­ous gift, work began to com­plete­ly ren­o­vate this space. We part­nered with East Baton Rouge City-Parish Depart­ment of Pub­lic Works to remove con­crete to expand beds and install root bar­ri­er. Then the BR Green Team and con­trac­tors (Bay­ou and Me-Moes) installed a palette of native shrubs and trees, e.g., Itea, Dahoon Hol­ly and May­haw. The pri­ma­ry goal this time was eco­log­i­cal enhance­ment and big improve­ments to stormwa­ter man­age­ment, BUT the beau­ti­fi­ca­tion has been an incred­i­ble byproduct!

Because Mur­phy’s Law — short­ly after plant­i­ng, a vehi­cle involved in a police chase prompt­ly destroyed half of the new plants and trees and rut­ted the fresh soil and mulch. We sal­vaged what we could, replant­ed what we could, and con­tin­ued to evolve our care of the site to adapt to today’s needs.

Over the years, we’ve had to man­age for drought, addi­tion­al vehic­u­lar ​“inter­ac­tions”, and just this Spring we iden­ti­fied a new prob­lem — an armored scale insect infes­ta­tion on some of our May­haw trees — which our ento­mol­o­gist-turned-arborist team mem­ber Devon Brits treat­ed with success.

There is no such thing as a main­te­nance-free land­scape. But like any oth­er invest­ment, trees and green spaces require nur­tur­ing and resources to thrive and reach their poten­tial. To be enjoyed, they must be cared for. Thanks to ongo­ing sup­port from Baton Rouge Gen­er­al, we can con­tin­ue to man­age the Aca­di­an medians.

Here’s to see­ing this space grow, evolve, and impact this part of the city for anoth­er 4 decades. And thanks to part­ners like the Baton Rouge Gen­er­al and EBR’s DPW Dept of Main­te­nance, the BR Green Team will be here to tack­le what­ev­er comes next.

Thanks again to our cham­pi­on site spon­sor, Baton Rouge Gen­er­al Health!