Saturday’s tree giveaway will bring some green back
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, October 24, 2012
A non-profit group committed to replanting more than 100,000 trees lost to Hurricane Katrina and other storms is hosting a tree giveaway event Saturday in St. John the Baptist Parish in an effort to assist in restoration efforts following Hurricane Isaac.
More than 1,200 trees will be available at the St. John Parish Community Center, 2900 U.S. Highway 51, LaPlace, as part of a Hike for KaTREEna event starting at 9 a.m.
The event will also include a seminar on proper tree planting and care provided by Bayou Tree Service and Entergy.
Hike for KaTREEna got its start in 2006, when lifelong New Orleans resident Monique Pilié hiked the 2,175 miles of the Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine, to raise awareness of Hurricane Katrina’s impact on New Orleans’ treescape. The journey took her six months, and her goal was to raise enough money to plant one tree in New Orleans for every mile she hiked. At the end of the hike, Pilié and a team of volunteers returned to the city and began planting trees.
On Saturday, Hike for KaTREEna will give-away 500 crepe myrtles and 700 other trees including cypress, oak, live oak, swamp red maple and green ash trees. All trees will be handed out on a first-come, first-serve basis and each person will be limited to two trees.
The group is part of the Super Bowl XLVII New Orleans Host Committee’s Environmental Committee. The Environmental Committee is charged with executing all environmental initiatives for Super Bowl XLVII, which will be held in New Orleans on Feb. 3, 2013. The trees have been generously provided by a grant from the Apache Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Apache Corporation, who has partnered with Hike for KaTREEna.
I encourage our residents who may have lost trees during the storm, to visit the Civic Center on Saturday to pick up a tree. I am thankful for Hike for KaTREEna and the Apache Foundation for bringing this program to our parish and donating the trees. St. John is in recovery and with the resources available to our residents, we will come back stronger.
