William Guion
The "Mr. Al Oak," which was saved by a group effort of local organizations in the New Iberia area in 2011. The DODT chose to move the oak to a new location so as not to change their road expansion plans. Mr. Al's new location is just off the Interstate on an entrance road into New Iberia.
In August, news that a large live oak tree in Gonzales had been felled to make way for a Chick-fil-A restaurant elicited a chorus of calls for stronger regulation to protect Louisiana’s heritage live oaks. The Gonzales oak, which was known by locals as the “Picadilly Tree” for its location on the grounds of a former Picadilly cafeteria, was registered in the Live Oak Society’s database of registered Louisiana live oaks, and judging by its near eighteen-foot girth, could have been as much as two hundred years old when cut. In the aftermath, local Gonzales officials are reportedly considering an ordinance to help protect historic trees, although according to Live Oak Society chairwoman Coleen Perilloux Landry, quoted in an article by Shannon Thornton on the website Unfiltered with Kiran, the fact that Louisiana has not passed any law protecting heritage live oaks places it out of step with several other Southern states. “What we need in Louisiana is a law to protect all the live oaks,” Landry said in the article. “Some parishes and some municipalities have laws, but until we have one overall law in Louisiana, there’s not a lot we can do.”
William Guion
Mr. Al Oak in New Iberia
But Bill Guion, the photographer and writer whose 100 Oaks Project created a photo-documentary of the one hundred oldest live oaks in Louisiana, doesn’t think live oak lovers should wait for the state to act. In a recently updated post on his site named “How to Save a Historic Oak,” Guion describes several treasured Louisiana live oak elders that have been saved from destruction when groups of determined citizens petition local leaders, raising enough public awareness and support to alter developers’ plans. Guion goes on to list steps community members can take for saving an important tree. They include starting petitions, resources for developing and evaluating tree ordinances, and references to existing ordinances in other cities and towns. Of course, Guion points out, a good first step is to register an important oak with the Live Oak Society, although he notes that while doing so raises awareness as to the historical significance of an elder tree, it does not confer any legal protection. “Unless your community, town, county commission, or other law-making body has created an ordinance or code to protect elder live oaks or other historic trees, then your oak may have no legal protection from the chainsaws of progress and development,” he writes.
[Read more about Louisiana's live oaks from photographer and writer William Guion, here.]
To qualify for Live Oak Society membership, a tree must have a girth, or trunk circumference, of eight feet or greater, when measured four-and-a-half feet above the ground. Find Bill Guion’s photographs of Louisiana’s oldest live oaks, plus his guide to saving them, at 100oaks.blog.
