La Porte, Trees For Houston establish new tree farm

A new tree farm will provide hundreds of trees for both the City of La Porte
and the Trees For Houston organization to plant across the area.

La Porte Parks and Recreation Director Stephen Barr says the idea came about
this February when Trees For Houston, a non-profit, was planting about 2,000
trees and shrubs in La Porte's Pecan Park. "They were having to bring plants
from Humble," Barr says. "I said, 'We've got some space available. We could
make you guys a tree farm that could service your southeast area.'"

The city and TFH, with help from the LyondellBasell Earth Day project,
cleared some city property located on South Broadway behind the city's
Recreation and Fitness Center. Volunteers recently planted about 200 trees
on the property.

Barr says that's "probably not even an eighth of the space that's available.
Eventually, we hope to have many more than that," as TFH transplants bigger
seedlings to the property.

Barr says he doesn't know yet what it will cost the city, but the city is
providing security, lighting, and water for the property. In turn, TFH pays
for irrigation services, and allows the city to use some of the trees for
its own projects. Barr says the irrigation system on the tree farm is "very
cost-effective."