U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell is visiting Southern University today for the 20-year anniversary celebration of its urban forestry program, and on Friday he’ll be at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new outdoor “educational forest” classroom. Southern’s Baton Rouge campus on a Mississippi River bluff has suffered so much erosion that stormwater drainage is becoming a problem, officials say. Forest projects will reduce erosion while giving students at all levels a chance to teach people in the area about the importance of natural resources, they say. The Forest Service has given Southern $120,000 for the educational forest classroom, including $60,000 to develop the landscape plan and $40,000 for student training. The outdoor work will also include hands-on projects for the Youth Summer Institute—an enrichment program that introduces high-school seniors and recent high-school graduates to urban forestry and other agricultural professions, the Forest Service says.
Southern gets $120K grants for outdoor forest classroom
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