GROWING CHANGE

Community comes out for Arbor Day to fight against hurricane tree loss

BY CLAIRE SULLIVAN & GABBY JIMENEZ @sulliclaire & @gvjimenezz

The Burden Forest, a 440-acre natural world off the side of Interstate 10, hasn’t been the same since Hurricane Gustav in 2008.

The Category 4 storm devastated its tree population, costing about $9.2 million in timber and forest damage statewide, according to the LSU AgCenter, which owns the sun-splotchy forest.

But for more than 15 years, Baton Rouge residents have helped replant the forest plot by plot. Hundreds celebrated Arbor Day at the AgCenter Botanic Gardens Saturday by planting a tree in the Burden Forest or taking one home to reforest their own area.

“The public is helping Mother Nature along,” said Jeff Kuehny, director of the botanic gardens.

Baton Rouge Green, a local non-profit organization that works to maintain the city’s tree canopy, hosted the tree giveaway, with 16 types of trees for attendees to choose from. The infant plants lined the forest floor, some carried away by children who hugged the pots to them as they stumbled back toward the hayride parking transport with their parents.

GPS coordinates were given to people who planted trees to keep track of their tree over the next few years.

Infrastructure

National Arbor Day is celebrated annually on April 28, though the date can vary for different states depending on climate and planting season. Louisiana Arbor Day is held the third Friday of every January.

Attendees weren’t afraid to get dirty. Thick mud — the remnants of the rain that postponed the event from the week earlier — coated their shoes and pant bottoms as they hiked through the Burden Forest to this year’s replanting plot.

Piper Dixon, 3, helped her mom Eva Dixon dig a hole for their tree. The mother-daughter planting pair came from Gonzales to participate in Saturday’s free event. Eva Dixon said she felt it was important for her daughter to get involved in events like these.

“I had seen some of the [tree]