The LSU School of Architecture’s Office of Community Design and Development (OCDD) is pleased to announce its latest community partner: the Woodlands Trail and Park in Belle Chasse, La., a 32-mile recreational and educational corridor of green space and nature trails that runs along the Mississippi River in Plaquemines parish south of New Orleans.

The Woodlands Trail and Park, which has been in the design and construction phase since 2001, will officially open with a ribbon-cutting ceremony this Monday, February 2 at Noon at 449 F. Edward Hebert Blvd. in Belle Chasse.

Though the park’s 13 miles of nature trails are now open for hiking and bird watching, there is still plenty of work to be done. That’s where LSU comes in. Student research associates under the supervision of OCDD director Marsha Cuddeback will be developing conceptual design illustrations for the proposed Woodlands Trail Interpretive Center and Riverfront Pavilion. Their work will begin in mid-February.

“Our new partnership is an excellent opportunity to provide developmental support in the area of planning and design for Woodlands Trail and Park,” says Marsha Cuddeback. “It also offers many service-learning opportunities for students to research and develop design strategies that embrace environmental stewardship.”

Woodlands Trail and Park is a nonprofit, 501-C-3 organization that was organized in 2001 with the mission to establish and embellish recreational, educational and historical greenways uniting the river communities of Orleans and Plaquemines Parish. The project will increase community access to the river and historic sites while preserving and protecting open space. The facilities developed will furnish a recreational area for equestrian, nature and bird watching trails, and work to preserve the unique character of Plaquemines and Lower Algiers’s historic, cultural, and ecological beauty.

The area includes a 32-mile corridor along the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish beginning with a 609-acre parcel of Plaquemines Parish Government owned land that is dedicated as Woodlands Trail and Park Bird Sanctuary and includes trails that form a portion of America’s Wetland Birding Trail.