Urban Trees in Southwest Louisiana
Preserve and Plant
Lake Charles Needs Its Trees Back
The storms of the early 2020s took a terrible toll on trees in Southwest Louisiana. A focused study documented a storm loss of one-third of the tree canopy in Lake Charles. Although replanting has begun, we need to work deliberately to plant more, emphasizing urban areas. This applies to public and private property: streets, parks, schools, and back yards.
Canopy is tightly linked to tree benefits. See the Benefits section of this site for a catalog of many good things trees provide, with little or no cost to you. You should also know about the Louisiana Treesilience Program run by The Nature Conservancy in south Louisiana.
Ongoing replanting needs more work, and we must preserve and honor the trees we still have. To produce a focal point for urban trees, students from McNeese State University in Lake Charles have been mapping mature live oaks in the urban landscape here. These long-lived trees have survived the storms better than other species. Many will outlive us. See the discussion and live oak maps.