200 trees to beautify, protect Algiers
Sunday, September 23, 2007
By Brian Friedman
Contributing writer

Perhaps the engineers in charge of designing the area's drainage pumps should have taken notes from Mother Nature.
A mature tree can easily consume 40 gallons of water a day, according to Dana Brown, a landscape architect with Brown and Danos Land Design Inc.

"That's 40 gallons that doesn't have to be taken care of by your flood control system," said Brown, speaking at Tuesday night's public meeting on beautification plans for Algiers at Our Lady of Holy Cross College's Moreau Center. The meeting was hosted by state Rep. Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, and the Westbank Redevelopment Corp. Inc.
Now multiply those 40 gallons by more than 200, roughly the number of trees that will be planted in November along the Holiday Drive/Behrman Highway corridor as part of a federally funded reforestation effort, and Algiers has a lot of natural drainage coming its way.

But it's not just about drainage. The canopy that will be created by the urban forest will reduce the effects of oppressive summer temperatures.

Plus, "trees are just absolutely beautiful," said Ann MacDonald of New Orleans Parks and Parkways. "This is really going to make this entire corridor very inviting."

Part of the goal of the project, said Brown, was "to create a visual image and effect that's very positive and helps support the economic development of this corridor, and support Algiers as a whole."

Money for the project comes from part of a $1.2 million federal grant to reforest those areas of Louisiana whose tree populations were lost to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Brown said.

The Westbank Redevelopment Corp., working with Tucker and New Orleans Parks and Parkways, applied for part of that sum through the state's Department of Agriculture and Forestry and was presented Tuesday night with a grant for $40,000.

"We're really proud that we got that for Algiers," said Kathy Lynn Honaker of the Westbank Redevelopment Corp. "That's a big shot in the arm. This is a big project, and this grant helped us to do the whole thing."

"This is a quality-of-life issue for Algiers and the West Bank," Tucker, chairman of the redevelopment corporation, said. "It's one of those aesthetic things that's just going to make it nicer to live in Algiers."

Tom Campbell of the state Department of Agriculture and Forestry presents a check to Westbank Redevelopment Chairman Jim Tucker for $40,000 to help with the reforestation of trees on Behrman Highway and Holiday Drive in Algiers. The work begins in November.

Westbank Redevelopment Corp., Inc.
732 Behrman Highway, Suite C-2
Terrytown, LA 70056
504-393-5646