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Trees Near Levee to Be Cropped07-13-06 | News

Trees Near Levee to Be Cropped




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The hackberries (Celtis laevigata) along Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans will be stunted, for now, and removed after the hurricane season.


The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) says 365 trees along Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans?EUR??,,????'??? Jefferson Parish need to be clipped down to a height of 4.5 feet. The trees are on a berm meant to help slow down a hurricane storm surge, an initial barrier before the waters reach the levee protecting Metairie and Kenner.

The Corps says the trees at their present height could be uprooted by high winds and leave holes in the berm that wave action would enlarge.

The Corps awarded two contracts to clip the trees under a government program for small and disadvantaged businesses.

After the hurricane season, the Corps will remove the trees and pack the holes with soil. The thinking is that removal of the trees now before the hurricane season would expose fresh fill material to wave erosion.

Stephen Finnegan, a landscape architect and assistant manager for the tree project, notes that more than two thirds of the trees are hackberries (a sugarberry), a heavy but relatively weak tree under high winds.




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