NPR's Melissa Block speaks to Lloyd Boover, the New Orleans protester who has been sitting in a tree since Friday to protest the construction of a golf course in City Park.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Protester Lloyd Boover has been occupying a cypress tree in New Orleans for seven days now. He's perched about two stories up, with a big banner proclaiming Wild Is Free. Boover is protesting a $24 million golf complex being built in New Orleans' City Park. It's a part of the park that was a golf course before it flooded in Hurricane Katrina. For the past 10 years, the area has grown wild, visited by birders, picnickers and dog walkers. But to others, it's a neglected eyesore, and construction is underway for a PGA-caliber golf course to be finished in two years. The protester, Lloyd Boover, has a cell phone with him up in that cypress tree and we've given him a call.

Lloyd, why don't you describe your perch for us up there?

LLOYD BOOVER: Oh, it's beautiful. I'm in a hammock and swinging, watching birds. There's cranes and robins and blue jays, beautiful oak trees all around me. And it's hard to describe - I'm seeing oak trees being destroyed and it's such a beautiful day.

For the past five days, protestors occupied a tree in City Park to oppose the new construction of a championship golf course that recently began. They splattered the words “Wild is Free” across a giant sheet hanging in the tree, suggesting that the plan diminishes City Park’s natural environment. One of the protestors eventually came down this afternoon.

Yesterday authorities built a small fence around the tree where the protestors were perched. Activists following the story claim that police shined lights on the occupied trees at nights so they couldn’t sleep, and that access to water was restricted by the fence.

NEW ORLEANS -- A small crowd of sympathizers opposed to construction of a championship-caliber golf course in City Park gathered outside the massive fence while two people camped out in a tree to protest the development.

The supporters handed out literature for their cause while a man named Lloyd and a woman calling herself Heart were in the tree.

The pair said they don't want trees torn down for the golf course. They said they have been threatened with arrest and told fire trucks will be called to remove them if they don't come down voluntarily.

A man occupying a tree in an area that soon will become a new $24.5 million golf complex in New Orleans City Park is hoping his actions will get park officials' attention, his friends said Tuesday (March 17).

The protester, known as "Lloyd," is holding a large white flag that says, "Wild Is Free." He's been in the tree since Friday.

According to his friend, Twila Hoyle, Lloyd is in the tree because "it's something he has to do for his spirit. Lloyd is a native New Orleanian and is very concerned about what's been happening in the city," she said.

With signs urging developers to back off on plans to build a $24.5 million golf complex in New Orleans City Park, nearly 100 park users gathered Friday (March 13) for a march to protest the project. Golf course opponents said they were concerned about losing a natural space that's open to everyone, and the impact the development would have on the birds, reptiles and other wildlife that have settled in the area. They also questioned whether a golf course would make money.

"We are trying to continue putting pressure on the board of City Park to listen to the citizens of New Orleans," said Christopher Lane, who used to enjoy frequent picnics and bird watching in the space. "There's been a public comment period on this golf course, but they've been ignoring all of the negative or alternative views of how they could use the space. There hasn't really been any process other than, 'We're going to build a golf course and go with that.'"

Friends, family, pets and even a brass band gathered at City Park on Saturday to protest a $24.5 million golf course. The effort was coordinated by the City Park for Everyone Coalition. Instead of the golf course, supporters want to keep the area a green space free to all.

Emily Schumacher stands with the Coalition. She utilizes the "green space" by bringing her students to teach them about Mother Nature. “We'll go through the paths and identify different things through the golf course and play nature games. They'll get different points for how many animals they can sight.” Schumacher says.

Passions flared Tuesday at the City Park Board of Commissioners meeting when more than sixty people gathered to challenge a planned $24.5 million golf course project in the park.

City Park CEO Bob Becker told the crowd that the state has already awarded a bid for the contract, construction has begun, and “golf is really not on our agenda.” But the board still heard more than an hour of comments from citizens who took aim at the role of golf in the park, as well as the board’s process for public involvement in the park’s post-Katrina renovations.

At issue was the footprint of the former East and West courses of the City Park Golf Complex, which were flooded after Hurricane Katrina and sat un-golfed for the last decade. While City Park, the State, FEMA, and a private foundation worked out a plan to create a single 18-hole championship-style golf course on the site, the links became overgrown, and residents began using the old courses for hiking and encountering nature.

NEW ORLEANS CITY PARK (WGNO) – Going into Tuesday’s board meeting for City Park, opponents of the new professional golf course knew they could do little more than complain.

“I realize all this is too late,” one man said.

The park’s board already approved a master plan last year, and construction on the new golf course is already underway. But the crowd still hoped to let the board know that they feel the golf course will take away green space from the park. They also feel the new golf course will serve far fewer people than the green space that’s being cleared for it now.

“Golf courses are the second worst land use that could possibly be used in an urban environment, second to grave yards,” another opponent told the board.

The hot topic as City Park's championship golf course becomes reality is moving the PGA Tour's annual stop in New Orleans, the Zurich Classic, from TPC Louisiana to the new tract. It's a debate that is down the road.

The new course, on which ground was broken Thursday, won't be ready until at least the fall of 2016 and the Zurich is contracted with TPC Louisiana through 2019. The smart money is on the event eventually moving to City Park. Location and a new course are the primary reasons why.

City Park is set to begin construction of a new championship-level golf course, nearly a decade after much of the 1,300-acre park was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The $13 million, 18-hole course will be modernized with both beautiful and challenging shapes, incorporating many of the lagoons and oak trees from the former East and West courses while erasing their former flatness.

Yet to be named, the par-72 layout has been designed by nationally renowned golf course architect Rees Jones, as well as Torre Design Consortium, of New Orleans. It ranges from 5,100 to 7,250 yards and is bordered by Filmore Avenue, Harrison Avenue, Marconi Drive and Wisner Boulevard.

Though only a few ceremonial shovels of dirt were turned Thursday, the long-awaited construction of City Park's championship golf course has begun. After almost nine years of delays, roadblocks and federal hoops to jump through, City Park hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the course on a chilly morning Thursday.

Duininck Golf Inc., which was awarded the contract in November, will build the $13.2 million course. Construction must be completed by the beginning of 2017, however, it could be ready by the fall of 2016, officials said Thursday.

You can't see it now among the overgrown cart paths and weed-choked lagoons but a championship golf course will soon rise in City Park. In two years or so, local duffers won't have to trek to English Turn or the TPC of Louisiana on the West Bank to enjoy championship-caliber golf. For the first time in decades, the East Bank could play host to a PGA Tour event.

Thursday was an important day for New Orleans golf.

City Park's long-awaited, oft-delayed $24.5 million golf complex finally broke ground and will one day be a boon for the local golf community. A new clubhouse, driving range and practice facility will be constructed on the footprint of old East and West courses, along with some upgrades for the North Course.

But the centerpiece—and future economic engine—will be the 7,300-yard Rees Jones-designed tract, which city and state officials broke ground on after nine years of planning and fund-raising.

Baton Rouge Recreation and Park Commission leaders are taking small steps to improve their seven golf courses but say they aren’t ready to follow a consultant’s recommendation to close some of the least-used courses.

Golf courses both public and private have struggled throughout Baton Rouge over the past few years as the number of people teeing off nationally and regionally has dwindled. The National Golf Foundation suggested last month that BREC bring up the quality of all of its courses and close its two lowest-performing golf courses, Howell Park and J.S. Clark Park, both located on the north side of the city.

A consultant recommended Tuesday that BREC close two golf courses and turn them into parks, at a time when Baton Rouge has struggled to attract golfers to its greens.

The National Golf Foundation’s suggestions include changing the Howell Park and J.S. Clark Park golf courses into non-golf parks and upgrading conditions at BREC’s five other courses.

The recommendations, unveiled at a public meeting Tuesday at BREC’s headquarters, also included that BREC expand food and drink offerings at golf courses and that the agency reach out to women and minorities as potential golfers.

The Louisiana Children’s Museum is on track to open a first-of-its-kind early childhood campus in New Orleans City Park by the end of 2017, park and museum officials have announced.

Museum officials plan to sell their old building at 420 Julia St. and open the new campus, dubbed the Early Learning Village, in the Roosevelt Mall section of the park.

The project, which has been in the works since it was incorporated into the park’s master plan in 2005, is the only new cultural attraction to be invited into the park so far, according to Julia Bland, the museum’s chief executive officer. “It’s a huge deal,” Bland said. “We’re relocating, but we’re building on many, many programs we’ve done for years, and we will be able to offer in much greater depth many more resources for the community.”