Louisiana Treesilience

TNC’s Louisiana Treesilience Program has been hard at work across Louisiana, growing a cooler, greener future one tree at a time. To date, the program has planted more than 7,400 trees to help restore the urban tree canopy in communities that were hit hard by hurricanes in 2020 and 2021.

So far in 2026, Louisiana Treesilience has planted 185 native trees ranging in size from 30 gallons to 200 gallons in five communities across the state. That’s a total investment of nearly $150,000 in community resilience that will assist with storm buffering, water retention, and heat reduction near urban areas.

In addition to tree planting, so far in 2026, Louisiana Treesilience also invested about $130,000 in urban tree planning and maintenance efforts in local communities. In St. Bernard Parish, for example, the program planted 56 native trees, including bald cypresses, sweetbay magnolias, nuttall oaks and savannah hollies in the Violet community and in Francis Park. The St. Bernard project, a $100,000 investment in the parish, also included planting designs by a licensed landscape architect and creation of a planting guide that the parish can use for future tree projects. 

In New Orleans, Louisiana Treesilience worked in neighborhoods across the city, including Lakeview, the 7^th Ward, and on the campus of LSU New Orleans (formerly the University of New Orleans). In the 7^th Ward, TNC worked with the City of New Orleans and Louisiana Department of Transportation to plant 41 trees along sidewalks and within the neighborhood under and adjacent to the Interstate 10 overpass. This project includes continual maintenance of the trees through their first growing season. Additionally, at LSU New Orleans, more than $50,000 was invested to help maintain and repair the campus tree canopy, which included the removal of 13 hazardous trees near roads, sidewalks and student common areas along with pruning existing trees to prepare for future storms. Twenty-six native trees were planted to replace the 13 trees that were removed.  

In Terrebonne Parish, the program conducted an urban tree canopy assessment which was used to update the parish’s urban forest management plan and determine where trees were needed most. To jump start the process of rebuilding lost canopy, Louisiana Treesilience planted 63 native species trees in four park locations for a $95,000 investment in the community.

In addition to this year’s plantings, Louisiana Treesilience has been monitoring the growth of 396 containerized trees planted in 2024 and 2025 across the state. Over all these trees are thriving, growing and already serving their communities with shade and natural beauty. For example, all 25 mature oaks and cypress trees that were transplanted in DeRidder’s West Park have grown taller and thicker since their installation in early 2025, completely transforming the park. In Alexandria, the 129 installed trees are helping to make cooler and more aesthetically pleasing corridors around the city at all 3 locations that were planted along roadways. 

In Slidell, walkers, bikers and families are enjoying the 72 trees planted in various parks around the city in 2025, providing needed shade near walking paths, playgrounds, and sports fields. Additionally, Slidell has benefited from Louisiana Treesilience’s removal last year of 34 dying and hazardous trees, saving the city money. 

These communities have invested in their future, and in a short time, these communities are already reaping the benefits as even young, growing trees intercept rainwater, provide shade and cooling benefits, absorb groundwater, prevent erosion and transform the views of a neighborhood, park or pathway. 

TNC's Louisiana Treesilience Program has been funded by a grant from the USDA Forest Service to replace thousands of trees in a 22-parish region that took the biggest brunt of hurricanes in 2020 and 2021. Now the program is working to expand statewide. 

Perched on the Tchefuncte River in Madisonville, Fairview Riverside State Park is a popular spot for RV and tent camping, boating on the river and enjoying a landscape that looks plucked right out of a scenic postcard of Louisiana. 

But over the years, that landscape has taken a beating. In Hurricane Ida, the state park lost more than 200 mature trees. The entrance to the RV campground is now awash in sunlight with the remaining pines unable to provide much shade during Louisiana’s hot summers. Pine beetles and drought conditions also have taken a toll on the park’s tree canopy.

The Nature Conservancy’s Louisiana Treesilience Program is now working to bring back some of that shade. Over the past two years, Louisiana Treesilience has planted 111 native trees in Fairview Riverside, with the last two dozen live oaks, American elms, Willow oaks, Tulip poplars, Florida maples and Sweetbay magnolias going in the ground this week. A $17,000 investment in the park’s tree canopy, the project is part of Louisiana Treesilience’s three-year effort to help restore public lands that lost thousands of trees in the hurricanes of 2020 and 2021. 

Funded by a grant from the USDA Forest Service, Louisiana Treesilience has planted more than 7,400 trees in communities across the state, from DeRidder, Lake Charles and Alexandria, to Slidell, Madisonville and New Orleans.

On a chilly but sunny day in late January, Amanda Takacs, TNC’s Louisiana community forest conservation coordinator, was supervising the tree planting project at Fairview Riverside as a four-person team from the Louisiana Conservation Corps (LaCC) were digging the holes, applying cypress and pine needle mulch and watering in the new trees. The LaCC is part of TNC’s GulfCorps program.

Fairview Riverside Park Manager Morgan Wood said TNC’s work is providing a needed boost to the park’s efforts to reforest areas and add more public amenities at the park. 

This is Louisiana Treesilience’s second project in St. Tammany Parish. Last year, the program invested $93,000 in hazardous tree removal and native tree planting in the City of Slidell, helping add needed shade to its municipal parks and a historic cemetery.

As we hit the peak of hurricane season, The Nature Conservancy’s Louisiana Treesilience program has been busy working to make urban tree canopies healthier and more storm resilient. In New Orleans’ Lakeview neighborhood, Louisiana Treesilience, working in partnership with the non-profit Friends of Lakeview, recently removed 11 dead or hazardous trees and conducted maintenance on mature trees along over a mile of Canal Boulevard. TNC then planted 22 live oaks and bald cypress trees and purchased 25 additional bald cypress and live oaks, which will be planted by Friends of Lakeview along Milne Boulevard. 

During the last year, Louisiana Treesilience has planted more than 7,000 trees on public property and removed 53 dead or hazardous trees in six communities across south Louisiana. 

Does your community need help restoring, maintaining or adding to its urban tree canopy? There is still time to submit an application for this round of Louisiana Treesilience funding. The program is a great way to bring trees to your community or create healthier urban canopy for storm season. 

Find more information and the application at nature.org/louisianatreesilience. To discuss project options, reach out to TNC's Louisiana Treesilience Program Coordinator Amanda Takacs at Amanda.takacs@tnc.org or 330-421-0013.

This summer, new oak trees provide shade and improve air quality for residents using the walking trails and picnic areas in a popular DeRidder park. On a busy street in Alexandria, new magnolia trees brighten the landscape while reducing air temperatures in the city’s downtown. Thanks to The Nature Conservancy’s Louisiana Treesilience program, these trees and many others will help communities be more storm-ready at the beginning of hurricane season.

Over the past 12 months, Louisiana Treesilience completed four major projects, with five other active tree plantings in progress, in communities devastated by storms in 2020 and 2021. Funded by a three-year grant from the USDA Forest Service, the program has planted nearly 600 large trees and removed 19 dead or dying trees that were potentially hazardous.

These projects, which serve more than 60,000 Louisiana residents, mitigate the effects of recent hurricanes by both removing hazardous trees and strategically planting native species to Louisiana Treesilience Celebrating one year of building storm-ready communities, one tree at a time reduce urban temperatures. “The trees also provide a buffer from storms, manage flooding and improve quality of life,” says Amanda Takacs, TNC’s Louisiana community forest conservation coordinator.

“Treesilience allows us to employ conservation practices where people live, work and recreate,” says Seth Blitch, TNC’s Louisiana director of conservation. “Also, not everyone has the opportunity to spend the day in nature, so bringing it to municipal areas can strengthen a community’s bond with the natural world.”

In DeRidder, the city already is seeing the benefits. “The park is full of people every morning, with the walking trail and the pickleball court,” says Tommy Landry, DeRidder’s director of public works. “To bring children out to play, if there are no shade trees, they won’t stay long.”