Courtesy of Paul Christiansen
On January 27, 2024 the Lafourche Band of the Biloxi Chitimacha came together with volunteers and local nonprofit organizations to plant 100 trees, replacing the trees lost to Hurricane Ida in 2021.
Centuries ago, the Chitimacha people who made their home in the fishing paradise we now know as Grand Isle came together to plant oak trees. They planted trees for all the reasons people across the millennia have: for their beauty, as a home and life source to birds and other wildlife, and for protection.
Those oak trees grew, stretching into the iconic canopy that has so defined the landscape of Grand Isle, and all of the people who have lived there since. Standing tall, their roots gripping the ground beneath them, the trees in no small sense have helped hold the island together as it weathered storm after storm, for hundreds of years. But when Hurricane Ida landed on the island in 2021, it was described as one of America’s most powerful storms to date—leaving no corner of the island unscathed. And finally, the trees came down, too.
On January 27, the Indigenous descendants of the island’s original inhabitants came together with volunteers and local nonprofit organizations to plant again, putting one hundred new oak trees into the ground. The event was coordinated by the Grand Isle Garden Club, Restore Grand Isle, and Restore or Retreat—all organizations dedicated to restoring and protecting the vulnerable environments of and around the Louisiana coast. Recognizing the importance of Grand Isle’s oak forests to its future, the Garden Club and Restore Grand Isle have made replanting a major tenet of their operations since Hurricane Ida. Restore and Retreat, a coastal advocacy group that has been working extensively with Louisiana’s Indigenous tribes on various sustainability projects, played a big part in coordinating the event with the Lafourche Band of the Biloxi Chitimacha. The project was funded by a grant from Keep Louisiana Beautiful and the office of Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser.
Quincy Verdun, Chief of the Lafourche Band of the Biloxi Chitimacha, reflected on the legacy of the cycle, “Today marks a significant event as our tribe put our hands in the dirt, just as our ancestors did centuries ago, planting new oaks to help protect Grand Isle from erosion caused by storms, protecting this beloved island for future generations to come.”
