Manchac cypress forest lost
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Coastal Cypress Links
Research/Associations:
Center for Southeastern Louisiana Studies at Southeastern Louisiana University
Turtle Cove Environmental Research Center at Southeastern Louisiana University
Save Our Cypress Campaign
Louisiana Forestry Association Cypress Mulch Position
Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation Habitat Proctection – Saving Our Cypress
Coastal Wetland Forest Conservation and Use
Louisiana Wildlife Federation Coastal Forest Position Statement
Private Industry:
Southern Cypress Manufacturer's Association
Acadian Hardwoods & Cypress
Cajun Cypress & Hardwoods
Louisiana State Cypress
Roy O. Martin Industries
Private Industry:
| Related Video |
 The Cypress Dilemma
For most of the country, the cypress tree symbolizes Louisiana’s history and culture. But the tree also lies at the heart of a struggle to balance the right of landowners to log their coastal property against concerns that cut cypress forests won’t grow back. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita underscored evidence that cypress forests reduce storm surge — making coastal logging an issue of hurricane protection.This video was produced by The Advocate and 2theadvocate.com. |
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As the French explorer Pierre Le Moyne Sieur d’Iberville paddled on Bayou Manchac during his exploration of the coast, he saw massive cypress trees on the land between Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain.
Those ancient trees remained standing for another 200 to 250 years.
But between 1865 and the early 1950s, the coastal forest was cut down, including one tree estimated by timber interests to be 4,000 years old.
The cypress trees were first thinned to build a rail line that headed out of New Orleans for points north of Lake Pontchartrain. In 1852, the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad built a track across the “land bridge,” as the terrain between two lakes is called.
When the Civil War broke out, the rail line became a strategic target. The crossing at Pass Manchac was, for a time, the dividing line between the Confederate and Union armies. Much of the railroad was built on wooden bridges, which were torched by both sides.
Southeastern Louisiana University professors Al Dranguet Jr. and Roman Heleniak authored a recent book on the Manchac region, “Back Door to the Gulf, An American Paradise Lost.”
They note that during the Civil War, the landscape between the lakes was so quintessentially cypress swamp that a Union officer commented on how inhospitable it was.
“Runaway slaves have surrendered to the bloodhounds rather than attempt to make their way through these poisonous bayous and swamps,” where “yellow fever and the cholera dwell in conjugal bliss,” he wrote, as quoted in the book by Dranguet and Heleniak.
The cypress began to fall quickly after the Civil War, when the trees were attractive and convenient for a growing nation looking for building materials. The rebuilt railroad made it easier to move cypress to markets in the Midwest and Northeast.
In the 1870s, timber barons began to harvest the gigantic trees. In the 1890s, steam equipment gave the industry more capability to harvest in such difficult terrain.
Today, as one flies over a generally treeless marsh, one can see the tracks left by “pullboats” used to drag fallen trees to a central location decades ago. Loggers also floated rafts of logs to bridges where cranes could lift them from the water and put them on railcars.
Lumber companies later built their own small rail lines, called “dummy lines,” into the swamp for cypress harvesting. The lines were usually constructed on top of less profitable trees such as sweet gums, which were laid in layers until the tracks were high enough to keep the railcars out of the water.
Film shot in the late 1940s and early 1950s of the last of the timber operations shows a bumpy ride through what was then left of the cypress forests.
From the late 1800s through the early 1900s, small logging and farming villages — Ruddock, Frenier and Strader among them — thrived on the land bridge.
Ruddock had a population of about 1,200 at one point. Those small towns never recovered from hurricanes in 1909 and 1915. The damage was compounded by a collapse in the cypress market and by business decisions to not rebuild mills destroyed by fires or storms.
Today, Frenier has been reborn, with a boat launch, camps and restaurants on the lake not far up U.S. 51 from LaPlace.
Shortly after the 1915 hurricane, William Mattoon of the U.S. Forest Service said the nation had reserves of about 40 million board feet of cypress, with about 15.7 million of that in Louisiana.
With production at the time expected to be about 1 billion board feet each year, he predicted cypress would be depleted in 40 years.
That prediction was accurate for the cypress on the Manchac Land Bridge. The Louisiana Cypress Lumber Co. milled its last cypress log in 1956.
Those ancient trees remained standing for another 200 to 250 years.
But between 1865 and the early 1950s, the coastal forest was cut down, including one tree estimated by timber interests to be 4,000 years old.
The cypress trees were first thinned to build a rail line that headed out of New Orleans for points north of Lake Pontchartrain. In 1852, the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad built a track across the “land bridge,” as the terrain between two lakes is called.
When the Civil War broke out, the rail line became a strategic target. The crossing at Pass Manchac was, for a time, the dividing line between the Confederate and Union armies. Much of the railroad was built on wooden bridges, which were torched by both sides.
Southeastern Louisiana University professors Al Dranguet Jr. and Roman Heleniak authored a recent book on the Manchac region, “Back Door to the Gulf, An American Paradise Lost.”
They note that during the Civil War, the landscape between the lakes was so quintessentially cypress swamp that a Union officer commented on how inhospitable it was.
“Runaway slaves have surrendered to the bloodhounds rather than attempt to make their way through these poisonous bayous and swamps,” where “yellow fever and the cholera dwell in conjugal bliss,” he wrote, as quoted in the book by Dranguet and Heleniak.
The cypress began to fall quickly after the Civil War, when the trees were attractive and convenient for a growing nation looking for building materials. The rebuilt railroad made it easier to move cypress to markets in the Midwest and Northeast.
In the 1870s, timber barons began to harvest the gigantic trees. In the 1890s, steam equipment gave the industry more capability to harvest in such difficult terrain.
Today, as one flies over a generally treeless marsh, one can see the tracks left by “pullboats” used to drag fallen trees to a central location decades ago. Loggers also floated rafts of logs to bridges where cranes could lift them from the water and put them on railcars.
Lumber companies later built their own small rail lines, called “dummy lines,” into the swamp for cypress harvesting. The lines were usually constructed on top of less profitable trees such as sweet gums, which were laid in layers until the tracks were high enough to keep the railcars out of the water.
Film shot in the late 1940s and early 1950s of the last of the timber operations shows a bumpy ride through what was then left of the cypress forests.
From the late 1800s through the early 1900s, small logging and farming villages — Ruddock, Frenier and Strader among them — thrived on the land bridge.
Ruddock had a population of about 1,200 at one point. Those small towns never recovered from hurricanes in 1909 and 1915. The damage was compounded by a collapse in the cypress market and by business decisions to not rebuild mills destroyed by fires or storms.
Today, Frenier has been reborn, with a boat launch, camps and restaurants on the lake not far up U.S. 51 from LaPlace.
Shortly after the 1915 hurricane, William Mattoon of the U.S. Forest Service said the nation had reserves of about 40 million board feet of cypress, with about 15.7 million of that in Louisiana.
With production at the time expected to be about 1 billion board feet each year, he predicted cypress would be depleted in 40 years.
That prediction was accurate for the cypress on the Manchac Land Bridge. The Louisiana Cypress Lumber Co. milled its last cypress log in 1956.
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