Brad Cooper, U.S. Forest Service District Ranger at Kisatchie, spoke to the Kiwanis club Tuesday, January 28, in his role as President of the Louisiana Forest Festival Board. The Forest Festival was not held in 2024 for a lot of reasons but Cooper as U.S. Forest Service District Ranger was disturbed by that and wants to do something about it. Forestry is a major industry in Winn Parish and in Louisiana.
He went to the board meeting for the La. Forest Festival to determine how to make it happen this year. The board is made up of previous board members Michael Brister, Brieanna Howell, and Kelley Skains Holmes and new board members Brad Cooper, Buddy King, Randa Williams, Victoria Carpenter, and Kayla Martin. Cooper ended up as head of the board. The Forest Festival needs to have strong ties back to the forest industry.
There is not a lot of money for the festival so they need strong community support. They need organizations such as civic clubs, churches, businesses, industry and other organizations to help out. The Forest Festival dates are April 25-26, 2025. This is the last weekend in April. On Friday evening they want to have activities on Main Street. What those activities are remain to be seen. Some ideas thrown out were bed races, cornhole tournament, street dance, food, and more.
On Friday there will be activities at the Fairgrounds for 4th grade students. On Saturday there will be collegiate skills competition. Hopefully they can attract some professionals but because they canceled last year that area will have to be built back up. But there will be plenty of activities for all ages. There are also plans for a stage and musical entertainment during the day Saturday.
The theme is “Future of Forestry”. They will have vendors displaying showing technology of the future in forestry. There will be T-shirts. The school art students will have a competition for the t shirt design.
Social media and the website for the Forest Festival will soon be updated with plans for this year.
Sponsors are being contacted and a new sponsor this year will be Duck Commander.
Cooper is excited about the plans for the Forest Festival and would like participation from as many groups as possible. Contact him at the U.S. Forest Service office on Highway 84 West.