From Rouge to Green

Baton Rouge is a city known for its strong sense of community.
But it’s also a city that’s becoming more aware of the need to
protect and enhance its natural environment. 


In a region where development has often meant the loss of green
spaces, there’s a growing movement to restore and care for what’s
left—especially its trees.


Sage Roberts Foley is Executive Director of Baton Rouge Green, an
organization she’s been involved with since 2010. Baton Rouge
Green is a nonprofit dedicated to planting trees, maintaining
green spaces, and improving the urban landscape. 


Sage is passionate about making a tangible impact, and under her
leadership Baton Rouge Green has taken on some ambitious projects
that are already transforming the region.


Trees are great to plant, but they’re not something that gives
you an immediate return on your investment. Trees are, more than
anything, an investment in our future. But a beautiful
tree-canopy future for Baton Rouge isn’t going to be worth much
if the future citizens of the city don’t have roots here.


And that’s where the Baton Roots Community Farm comes in. Baton
Roots is an urban farm. And a collection of agricultural projects
that provide an opportunity for community members to learn best
practices in sustainable agriculture.


It’s an initiative that falls under the umbrella of a Baton Rouge
organization we’ve talked about before on this show, The Walls
Project. 


The Associate Director of Baton Roots Community Farm is S.K.
Groll.


Every year when June 1st rolls around we start talking about
hurricanes. If this does anything - besides inducing a
community-wide sense of anxiety - it makes us confront the fact
that we’re living in a precarious place.


Whether you believe climate change is man-made or simply the
result of a natural cycle, we have to do whatever we can to make
Baton Rouge resilient enough to withstand whatever nature and the
future throws at us.


While most of us do what we can by thinking positive thoughts and
staying upbeat about life here, folks like Sage and SK are
getting up every day and actually doing something to help ensure
city life is not just sustainable, but better for future
generations.


Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the
Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Ian Ledo
and Miranda Albarez at itsbatonrouge.la.


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