Chalmette Refining funds tree-planting

Community volunteers and Chalmette Refining employees came together recently to plant 500 bald cypress trees near Braithwaite and the Caernarvon Freshwater Diversion. This project was completed with the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF) and will help restore 2.5 acres.

An additional 5,000 trees were professionally planted in the area, resulting in restoration of another 25 acres to reduce the risk of storm surge. Both plantings were funded by Chalmette Refining’s $150,000 donation.

Theryn Henkel, Ph.D., of LPBF, said, “We restore the forest, so the swamp can protect the levee, and the levee can protect our people.”

– Elizabeth Ellison-Frost, Chalmette Refining