The Recreation and Park Commission for the Parish of East Baton Rouge, better known as BREC, maintains over 180 parks.
With the help from the Green Force, BREC employees have an easier time maintaining trails, fishing ponds, gardens and more in 12 community parks, five conservation areas and conservation lands in neighborhood parks.
Founded in 2017, the Green Force is a conservation-focused volunteer program that currently has 90 active volunteers. BREC natural resource manager Lydia Nichols-Russell said within Green Force, all of the volunteer activities are geared towards sustainability.
“It’s a lot of time in the field and our main goal is to kind of conserve natural landscapes and make that accessible for people as an educational tool and a recreational opportunity to get into nature,” Nichols-Russell said.
Last year, the Green Force documented 1,772 volunteer hours, 36 new members and 131 volunteer events.
Volunteer events include their Catfish Rodeo and Privet Pull-ooza. Beyond organized efforts, once volunteers complete their yearly training they are able to help with efforts specialized to their desires. This can be taking the time to help with fallen trees in nature trails, removing invasive species from parks or attending a monthly gardening at one of their pollinator gardens.
Nichols-Russell called the Green Force an extra set of eyes for BREC employees. She said that with their help in efforts like their monthly Ardisia removal, BREC is able to eliminate more of the invasive species.
“We have limited staff, so even just our capacity to be able to handle that on the around 3,000 acres of conservation land that we have in the parish is a lot and probably physically impossible,” Nichols-Russell said. “Having the extra help there really is a huge asset.”
Assistant director of natural resource management at BREC Sharon King said the main difference between the Green Force and regular volunteers is the depth of their training as well as their focus on conservation.
Training shows them how to use specific gardening tools, classroom skills and invasive species removal so they can execute these needs without the presence of a BREC employee, King said.
King said that without the Green Force, there were times in the past few years that trails would have needed to be shut down due to employees’ attention being on other projects and them only being able to be at one place at a time.
“The Green Force, it’s the people who really enjoy being outdoors and are really dedicated. They show up all of the time,” King said.
A word King used to describe Green Force volunteers is “warrior,” one of them being Nathaniel Klumb.
On top of a full-time job with the East Baton Rouge school board, Klumb volunteers hundreds of hours every year and has been returning as a Green Force volunteer since 2020.
Klumb said being outdoors, working on hiking trails and occasionally pushing down a rotten tree is a passion of his, which was a major part in his decision to join. He said he felt that not only was he doing something he enjoyed, but he knew that it was for a good cause.
“The requirements are basically utterly trivial and the opportunities are vast,” Klumb said.
One of their upcoming volunteer events is the Catfish Rodeo on Oct. 18. The event allows anglers of all ages to come fish and learn about sustainable fishing.
On Nov. 22, they will be hosting another volunteer event, Privet Pull-ooza, where they will be removing invasive privet from Bayou Manchac Park to restore the natural habitat.
The next biannual Green Force training will be on Dec. 13. For more information or to register for any of these events, check out their website here.
This story has been updated to accurately reflect the amount of conservation land BREC maintains.
