Keep Covington Beautiful (KCB) has been selected by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture & Forestry to receive funding through the 2013 Louisiana Urban & Community Forest (UC&F) Grant Program. The overall goal of KCB’s project is to create a proto-type tree planting plan to be used as the basis for the City of Covington’s Community Forest Master Tree Planting Plan. The project grant period is from July 1, 2014 through June 31, 2015.
The project will focus on parts of the primarily residential neighborhoods known as the West 20’s and West 30’s. The approximate boundaries of the study area will be West 22nd Avenue to West 29th Avenue to West 29th Avenue to N. Columbia, between North Buchanan and North Madison streets. Several public meetings will be held to inform and engage city residents, particularly residents of the study area, about the project.
The project will establish criteria for evaluating potential locations for planting new trees. Several sections of streets in the area will be selected to record data such as existing trees, signs, overhead and underground utilities, driveways and areas used for parking.
Keep Covington Beautiful will partner with the city Tree Board to oversee the project. KCB will work with the city engineer and GIS analyst to guide the project and conduct field work in the study area so that the information gathered can be integrated into the city’s public utility/streets mapping system.
Volunteers will be trained to collect data using a variety of planning tools including Geographic Information Systems (GIS), i-Tree software and on-ground data collection efforts. Professional consultants will be used to provide technical guidance, project coordination and preparation of the tree planting plan. Residents can expect to see consultants and volunteers will be working in the project area during the grant period.
Keep Covington Beautiful is a 501 c 3 non-profit organization dedicated to the beautification of the city of Covington. To learn more about KCB’s beautification, litter prevention and recycling activities, or to become a member or volunteer, contact KCB at 985-867-3652 or email kcb@covla.com; visit www.keepcovingtonbeautiful.org & follow KCB on Facebook.
