BATON ROUGE — Local nonprofit Baton Rouge Green began the process of planting hundreds of trees at the I-10/I-12 split on Tuesday.

The organization aims to replace 256 live oaks that were removed five years ago due to contruction of the College Drive flyover. 

"Today is the first day of phase 1," Sage Foley of Baton Rouge Green said. "There will be 76 trees going in this week in three species — live oaks, overcup oaks and bald cypress — and then in subsequent years we'll be planting another 300-plus across this whole interchange and six different areas, and there will be an additional three more species that we'll be putting in."

Baton Rouge Green said state transportation officials are keeping a promise to double the amount of trees removed, with funding from the state and the construction company.