Another Katrina Tragedy

“I think that I shall never see” You probably know the rest. I was reminded of this when we went to New Hampshire last October at the peak of the leaf changing season and it was natural that this particular poem came to mind. I was surprised that I remembered most of it, but I also knew I was missing at least one verse. When I got home I Googled Robert Frost and searched for his poem, Trees. In my search there were two surprises. One, it was not Robert Frost who wrote Trees, it was Joyce Kilmer. The second surprise was that you could Google Robert Frost/Trees and you get the poem written by Kilmer.

Actually, I had been thinking about trees a lot ever since Katrina. Uprooted and damaged trees were another great loss we suffered in our area the magnitude, which most people don’t appreciate. Thousands, hundreds of thousands trees were gone. Untold numbers of trees were damaged. Some were counted like losing soldiers in a war—160 lost on the golf course near our house, 400 cut down by the Corps of Engineers along the lake. There was a pretty big uproar about this one. The trees, on the levee surrounding the lake in Jefferson, survived the winds of Katrina and the many people who enjoyed the shade as they walked, jogged or biked along the lake were quite upset. The justification for cutting the trees relates to something AB and I discovered when we made our first trip back after the storm: trees were not only blown over, but also uprooted yards and yards of dirt—sometimes taking half the yard with it.

No trees were immune. The river birch on the front lawn of our next door neighbors, young, old and very old gigantic oaks and all the other varieties that graced our area were either gone or damaged. And all had that gray look that stayed with us for months. On that first trip home I went to a friend’s house in the neighborhood and they were out in their yard surveying a big oak next to their house they felt had to be removed. I happened to mention how odd we thought it was that the trees that blew over took so much soil with them. My friend informed me that it was due to the high water table in the area and that the tree’s roots spread out and didn’t need to grow deep. The same with the tap root that usually grows deep enough to stabilize the tree.

Last week at Church we sang an old gospel song that relates to this subject. “ I Shall Not Be Moved. I shall not be moved, just like a tree that’s planted by the water, I shall not—no I won’t, no I won’t, I shall not, I shall not be moved.” This symbolizes strength but during the storm it seems that the wind conquered the trees.

On Friday, March 9 Lolis Elie mentioned a girl in his column who as a student at Ursuline Academy several years ago had a dream of hiking the Appalachian Trail. Her dream became a reality last April when she started the 2,175 mile trek. She also decided to use the journey as inspiration for a tree-planting mission in New Orleans. She hoped to raise enough money to plant one tree for every mile.

The Parks and Parkways department of the city of New Orleans reports that over 100,000 trees were lost during Katrina. Monique Pille’ needs $100,000 to complete her project and so far she has planted 44 trees in several neighborhoods.

We have a Blvd. in our area that has a four block stretch of Oak trees planted in the neutral ground. The storm did terrible damage to every one of them. It was eerie since they all had basically the same damage—about a third of the bonnets were gone and all the damage was on the same side. There were also damaged branches hanging from the trees and they no longer had the bright, beautiful green look, they now looked gray. For many months after the storm I had to go down the street every day. It was like a thorn in my side. Sometimes I would say things out loud like, “Why can’t the city send some workers out to remove the hanging limbs. Why can’t they come and even out the tops of the trees.” Of course I knew there were priorities in the cleanup and reconstruction but the tree situation was an ongoing aggravation.

We also have a row of oaks down Chateau Blvd. and Kenner city workers were tending to them today. It appears that they are thriving and have been shaped and pruned.

So like everything else in our city the trees are getting a little help and are slowly coming back—not exactly like they were before but much appreciated.

By the way, just in case you don’t remember that great tribute to trees, here it is.

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed;
Against the earths sweet flowing breast.

A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts its leafy arms to pray

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair

A tree whose bosom snow has lain
And intimately lives with rain

Poems are made by fools like me
But only God can make a tree.

(submitted by Emile Jr.)