[StBernard] Green from grant to seed tree survey

[Westley Annis]

August 11, 2006 
 
St. Tammany bureau
 
St. Tammany Parish officials and volunteers working with the parish hope to
get a better grip on the hurricane damage to trees on public lands with the
help of a $10,000 grant. 
 
 
The grant, along with a $10,000 local match, will be used to conduct a
detailed parishwide inventory and assessment of "canopy damage" on public
properties, according to parish environmental specialist Brett Henry. 
The parish already has a digital aerial map of canopy damage given to St.
Tammany by a Mississippi forester, Henry said. "That gives us some good data
from which we can do a more complete study and inventory with more sensitive
equipment," Henry said. 
 
The urban and community forestry grant through the state Department of
Forestry also will be used to begin mapping out a strategy and plan for
replacing lost and damaged trees and for public education workshops, Henry
said. 
 
The Parish Council in January named a Landscape and Urban Reforestation
Advisory Work Group, made up of citizens, to begin drafting a recovery plan
for public lands denuded of trees and other vegetation.
 
Buck Abbey, who leads the panel, said the grant will provide seed money to
start the work that needs to be done. Abbey is a professor at the Louisiana
State University School of Landscape Architecture and is affiliated with the
LSU Hurricane Center. 
He said almost all public land in St. Tammany -- parks, roadways, pocket
parks, the Tammany Trace recreational trail and preserves -- had trees or
landscaping damaged by last year's hurricanes. 
 
Abbey said it will take a long program, with plenty of public involvement,
to replant, recultivate and rebuild the storm-damaged areas. 
 
The grant will help get the program started with a detailed inventory of the
damage to public properties parishwide, Abbey said. 
 
This fall the advisory group plans to present to the Parish Council a report
with recommended steps to implement a recovery plan, Abbey said. 
 
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Is this something we could look at for replanting St. Bernard?  Do we have
any grant-application writers as employees?  Or, is there someone else who
could look into the possibility of us doing the same thing?
 
JLY