Coleen Perilloux Landry is chairwoman of the Live Oaks Society in New Orleans. The Live Oak Society was founded in 1934 by Dr. Edwin Lewis Stephens and currently has 7,370 trees registered with the society. "They do have a special place in our hearts, a lot of people remember them growing up in their yards or in the park … A lot of people will remember a live oak saving their lives in a hurricane," Landry says. The oldest tree in the society lives in Mandeville and is at least 1,200 years old. Landry reminds us that parking on top of oak tree roots damages the tree by compressing the soil and reducing the oxygen to the roots. If you own an oak or know of an oak that is at least 8 feet around then you can register that oak with the society — you may very well save its life by doing so. Listen to learn more about our old friend the oak.

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