College Drive at I-10

When a local phil­an­thropist looked at the Col­lege Dri­ve inter­change at I‑10, he saw a blank slate in the heart of Baton Rouge that des­per­ate­ly need­ed atten­tion. He called Baton Rouge Green to help. With his ini­tial invest­ment, and ongo­ing sup­port from com­pa­nies like Turn­er Indus­tries and Rais­ing Cane’s, and cit­i­zens like the Lind­sey & Tom East­er­ly, this site is the most vibrant in our Liv­ing Road­ways program.

Between 2015 and 2018, Baton Rouge Green installed over 100 trees and hun­dreds of shrubs, grass­es and iris­es at sev­er­al areas across the site. What used to be turf grass and a few large live oaks is now a mul­ti-sto­ry mini-for­est of native species that helps low­er tem­per­a­tures, calm traf­fic, traps pol­lu­tion and car­bon from high-traf­fic road­ways, and even pro­vides habi­tat for birds and insects.

Tree and shrub species at this site include:

• Dahoon Hol­ly (Ilex cassine)

• Live Oak (Quer­cus virginiana)

• Sweet­bay Mag­no­lia (Mag­no­lia virginiana)

• Pond Cypress (Tax­odi­um dis­tichum var. nutans)

• Wax Myr­tle (Morel­la cerifera)

• Swamp Red Maple (Acer rubrum drummondii)

• Devilwood/​American Olive (Osman­thus americanus)

• White Oak (Quer­cua alba)

• Hack­ber­ry (Celtis occidentalis)

• Spruce Pine (Pinus glabra)

• Swamp Titi (Cyril­la racemiflora)

• Native Yaupon (Ilex vomitoria)

• Blue Flag Iris (Iris virginica)

• Soft Rush (Jun­cus Effusus)

• White Sea Shore Mal­low (Kostelet­zkya vir­gini­ca ​‘Immac­u­late’)

• Rosa’a Blush Dwarf blue­ber­ry (Vac­cini­um dar­rowii ​‘Rosa’s Blush’)

• Itea / Vir­ginia Sweet­spire (Itea Virginica)

Before

After