Over 12 million trees have been taken down in Louisiana as a result of the wildfires and the drought of 2023. 7,000 of those trees were in Rapides Parish.
The trees were removed because they were malnourished, according to State Representative and House Speaker Pro Tempore Mike Johnson (R), who along with local, state and federal partners, has championed the idea of removing the trees to make way for the healthy trees.
“Being from Pineville, you’re going to have pine trees. So, I’m pleased with the progress, but we still have a long way to go,” Johnson said.
Johnson reported that in Rapides Parish, the malnourished trees removed include 3,500 taken down by Cleco, 554 by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, and about 3,000 taken down by the Rapides Parish Police Jury.
Johnson has been a key voice in the legislature in highlighting and addressing the pine beetle outbreak in Louisiana. He is the chairman of the Pine Beetle Subcommittee in the legislature, which just concluded its meetings after listening to different concerns from local and state entities.
Among those who testified was Town of Ball Alderman Marc Mercer who expressed concerns about dead trees in his town.
“We’re talking about 200 or 300 trees between both roads. So, we knocked a home run in Ball. I don’t know about anybody else,” he said. “Camp Livingston Road, for example, Ball Elementary is on Camp Livingston Road. We had school buses driving on it. I mean, it was just a terrible thing. But thankfully, we were able to get it taken care of.”
Johnson stated that following the meetings, “One of the benefits of that is that we’ve developed a foundation that would be in a position to receive funds and also is being funded and will be able to tap into some federal funds.”
He added, “I’m hoping to be able to put some state dollars to create grants primarily to help offset some of the private cost of having to remove a tree, which is an incredible amount of money for an average person.”
Johnson has also spoken with Congressman Cleo Fields and members of the Louisiana Delegation in Congress to bring more awareness.
“Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is aware of it, and we plan to double back on that and try to seek some funding for that,” Fields said. “Rapides is unique, and we have people that work together, whether it’s the city, whether it’s the parish, whether it’s the other state legislators. Then federally, we just work together well. We have done everything we can, statewide and in Central Louisiana, to try to remove the danger hazard out of it.”