OLD GROWTH CYPRESS DOES NOT ESCAPE HURRICANE IDA’S WRATH

Many of the old growth cypress landmarked by the Louisiana Purchase Cypress Legacy since 2003 were in the the wide swath of Ida’s very strong winds. We can report on three of these cypress located in St. John, St. Charles, and Jefferson Parishes.

 

The most damaged cypress of the three mentioned in this blog entry is the Shell Bank Bayou Cypress, located near the entrance of Shell Bank Bayou off Hwy 55 in St. John Parish. This tree was landmarked in  with plaque # 39 in 2013; estimated at 450  years old base on account of rings taken from a boring.

LPCL cypress on Shell Bank Bayou, St. John Parish after Ida, September 2021

                                                             (Plaque #38 remains on tree)

Paddlers passing by LPCL Landmarked cypress (Plaque #39 ) (Before Ida)

Here is a link to the 2014 blog entry providing more information about the LPCL landmarking of this tree.
                                                

Although we're unlikely to see this tree return to its former glory in our lifetimes (if at all), this fine old cypress deserves our best wishes for  leafy new limbs and a second lease on life.

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"The Monarch Cypress"-- Barrataria Preserve (Jean Lafitte National Park), Jefferson Parish

Perhaps among the most visited of all landmarked LPCL cypress, this cypress is easily accessible  from the Bayou Coquille trail. Estimated at over 600 years old, it is the older known cypress in Jefferson Parish.

Barrataria Preserve "Monarch Cypress" on Coquille Trail in September 2021 after Ida impact

                                         -- it is  missing large limbs seen in 2012 photo below

       Dedication in 2012 of LPCL's Founders tree for Louisiana Bicentennial Cypress Legacy

This cherished "Monarch" of the Barrataria Preserve also lost limbs during Hurricane Zeta and no doubt has weathered many undocumented hurricanes through the centuries. As with all trees impacted by Hurricane Ida, we wish the Monarch a healthy recovery many more years of stately grandeur.

Click here for the 2012 Times Picayune story about the La Bicentennisl Cypress Legacy dedication of the Barrataria Preserve Monarch cypress.

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Dufrene Cypress, Pierre Part, St. Charles Parish

We can report happier news regarding the beloved Dufrene family cypress along Bayou Gauche in Pierre Part, St. Charles Parish. Despite enduring Ida's winds well in excess of 100mph. it came through unscathed. It was landmarked in 2010 (LPCL Plaque #27), and at approximately 300+ years old, is still the oldest known cypress in St. Charles Parish. At about half the age of the Barrataria "Monarch"  and 150 years younger than the unfortunate Shell Bank Bayou cypress described above, the Dufrene family cypress may been more resilient to very strong winds than the two other more aged trees shown above.

Although this tree has likely survived countless hurricanes through the centuries, it was not Mother Nature that nearly brought down this tree, but rather the "hand of man" in the form of proposed St. Charles Parish levee improvements that would have forced removal of the tree. But thanks to the tenacity of Murray Dufrene, this tree has thus far escaped destruction-- levee improvements will be located to  spare the tree.

Click here to read Murray's Dufrene's published plea for saving this cypress from the proposed St. Charles levee improvements

Dufrene Family cypress-- September 2021

Dufrene cypress in its splendor before to Hurricane Ida

The Dufrene family exemplifies the stewardship of privately owned old growth cypress that is helping ensure that centuries old (and in several cases millenium old) cypress throughout Louisiana will be there for future generations, however many hurricanes  and lightning storms come their way.

We'll continue to report on how other LPCL landmarked cypress have fared post-Ida. We welcome any updates from our readers, and, as always, appreciate any leads for old growth cypress throughout the state.

Finally, It is tragic that so many towns and settlements throughout southeast Louisiana have suffered at least as much damage from Hurricane Ida as our natural heritage--our centuries old cypress and live oaks; those trees that have survived likely provide little solace to those who have lost everything.  Louisianans have demonstrated resilience through the centuries despite what Mother Nature throws their way -- all the more reason that stewardship of our remaining old growth cypress is so vital.

Plentiful Old Growth Cypress along King George Bayou in Livingston Parish

We've received many requests since we began the La Purchase Cypress campaign in 2003 for areas where one can visit several large old cypress in one accessible location. In addition to responding to individual requests. we'll be periodically showcasing on this blogsite locales worth exploring for old growth cypress. The map link below shows sites of several cypress well over the 218 year threshold for inclusion of Louisiana trees in the LPCL inventory:

Click here for the map.

(Note that the map incorrectly labels King George Bayou as the Amite River-- King George Bayou does slowly flow into the Amite) Click on markers for GPS locations of these trees. Marker ID 76QR+8P is the location of a 16'11" circumference cypress from which a boring revealed extremely closely spaced rings--projected age: well over 500 years old. The map also shows the location of the largest and oldest known cypress along King George Bayou (LPCL Plaque #46), having a 21 foot circumference and a projected age of 1100+ years.

Access for canoe or kayak paddlers is at the end of King George "Bay" Road, which is off Hwy. 444 near French Settlement.

Fortunately for the  enduring survival of these primeval trees, much of King George Bayou was recently added to the State's Maurepas Swamp Wildlife Management Area

 

              Another Livingston Parish Ancient Cypress Landmarked

Livingston Parish and the Amite River Watershed are proving to have a treasure trove of ancient cypress,  perhaps unmatched in Southeast Louisiana. (Click our inventory and map tabs above for a summary of some of the landmarked cypress in Livingston Parish). The Tickfaw River/State Park area, Bayou Barbary, and King George Bayou have offered up dozens of centuries old cypress. The most recent addition to this list is the Colyell Bayou area near French Settlement.

Click here to view the map. (Click teardrop markers on map for GPS and tree info.)

In July of 2020 Jesse Murphy and I paddled through a good portion of  the “Murphy Badlands” cypress swamp. This cypress swamp adjacent to Colyell Creek near French Settlement, owned by generations of the French Settlement Murphys,  is sprinkled with at least two  dozen centuries old cypress, three of which are located on the map below. The coring we took of one of these trees reveals an extremely old cypress, which has the distinction of being among the two or three oldest known cypress in the Livingston Parish/Amite River watershed, based on ring counts from borings:

Here are the statistics on what Jesse has named the “Parrain Cypress”:

Circumference: 23’6”—measured 6 ft. from base

Diameter: 7’6”  Radius: 3’9”

Boring length: 2.5”  Rings counted: 175

Projected age: 1100+ years 

This is a conservative age estimate. Even with likely much faster growth and thus more widely space rings in the now hollow early growth center of the tree, the ring count projection would make the tree much older than 1100 years (ring count corroborated by an LSU dendrochronologist)

Jesse Murphy awarding Parrain Tree Plaque #72

As can be seen from the photograph, yearly rings on the boring sample are extremely closely spaced; this combined with the tree’s very large circumference leads to the likelihood that this is a millennial cypress—at least 800 years old at the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

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Our next blog entry-- coming shortly-- will feature one of several accessible areas where several old growth cypress can be viewed

Oldest Known East Baton Rouge Parish Cypress Tree Identified

Mike, Rabalais, Natural Resource Coordinator for East Baton Rouge Parish
measures circumference of cypress at BREC's Airline Highway Park

,

Here are the statistics:

Circumference: 16 feet   diameter: 5'1"  radius: 30 inches

Boring: 3.75"  Rings counted: approximately 126

3.75" boring length/ 30' radius = 125 rings/ x

X= 1008 projected rings

Projected age 800+ years

Very closely spaced rings from BREC cypress boring

GPS 30° 20'35.48"N  90° 59'49.30" W Located in BREC's Airline Highway Park, E Baton Rouge Parish

Although the site of this grand old cypress near Bayou Manchac is not currently open to the public, future plans for airline Highway Park, currently being developed in a master plan for the park, may include access to this  ancient landmark