What’s Happening to the Trees in New Orleans?
The Louisiana city has struggled to rebuild its tree canopy, devastated by storms and neglect. But an influx of federal aid and a new reforestation plan could offer hope.
While huge live oak trees are a fixture of New Orleans neighborhoods like the Garden District, the city’s overall tree canopy has been in decline.
Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
To a casual visitor, New Orleans appears to be a city of trees. It’s home to both the largest urban wildlife refuge in the US and a city park larger than New York’s Central Park. Sprawling live oaks, some hundreds of years old, shade the city’s most famous avenues and neighborhoods; their enormous boughs, dripping with Spanish moss, are local icons.
But that picturesque image is a bit misleading.