Illegally Cut Down: Beloved Live Oak on St. Charles Avenue “Massacred”

DEBARYLIFE – The Department of Parks and Parkways in the city claims that over the weekend, a live oak—one of the most recognizable images of New Orleans’ natural surroundings and a popular tourist destination—was illegally hacked down on St. Charles Avenue.

The 1200 block of St. Charles Avenue contained the tree that had been decked out with Mardi Gras beads. In 2008, it was planted.

But now all that’s left of it is a stump that’s roughly 20 inches across. Four men were seen chopping off the tree and putting the lumber in the back of a red pickup truck by a bystander on Sunday morning.

Born and raised in New Orleans, Neil Navarro now resides in Metairie. “My wife and I were heading uptown to go grab some breakfast… and I look over and see these four individuals cleaning up from what they’d just done,” he said.

“The tree was utterly destroyed. It was just mangled and thrown into a truck’s bed.

Navarro and his spouse took several pictures and shared them on social media. Odom Heebe, the president of the St. Charles Avenue Association, saw that and reported it to the Department of Parks and Parkways.

Heebe stated, “The St. Charles Avenue oak alley is the reason people visit New Orleans.” It is somewhat well-known.

He said that in the previous 20 years, the association has planted more than 300 live oaks on St. Charles.

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Live oaks are protected in New Orleans. Permission is needed even to prune one of the trees. It is “rare to see a removal like this in a high profile area,” according to Michael Karam, director of the Department of Parks and Parkways, who stated that no permit was obtained to cut down this specific tree.

A century-old live oak at the intersection of St. Charles Avenue and Adams Street was unintentionally toppled by an Entergy New Orleans contractor last year.

Additionally, according to Karam, his department asked the New Orleans Police Department for help with its investigation into the tree-cutting incident on Sunday.

“It was fortunate that someone was taking pictures,” he continued. However, it was already too late when we learned about it.

According to the National Park Service, live oaks can reach heights of up to 80 feet and have branches that span 120 feet.

The oldest live oaks in New Orleans can be found in a grove in City Park situated between Bayou Metairie and City Park Avenue. The age of one of those trees is thought to be 900 years.

The parks administration claims that live oaks offer further environmental advantages to New Orleans in addition to their famous stature.

The Department of Parks and Parkways’ urban forester Amanda Walker stated, “These larger evergreen trees are playing an incredible role in our ability to manage stormwater, sequester carbon, and they help combat the heat island effect.”

“Every tree, including that one, is extremely important to New Orleans in the fight against climate change and in enhancing the sustainability of our city.”

Walker asserts that a tree’s potential environmental advantages increase with size and age.

She stated, “A tree planted today won’t have nearly the same impact that it will have in 20 years.”

She thus believes that even though a new oak tree will be planted in the location of the fallen tree, “we won’t see nearly as many benefits as we would have if this tree hadn’t been cut down.”