Oak Alley

[Larry Tucei]

All-

Beautiful Oak Alley
Friday April 2 I returned to Oak Alley Plantation in south Louisiana.
I have measured every large Live Oak tree on this property somewhere around 60-something.
My first visit was 2007, again in 08, 10, 12, 15, 18 and 2021.
Some of Louisiana’s tallest and largest grow here and are around 200+- years old.
My documentation is an ongoing project which includes Age Data, Height, Circumference, Crown Spread and now For the first time Volume- Cubic Feet, on the
largest tree Josephine Stewart.

The Alley of Oaks in front of Mansion contains two paired rows of 14 trees to the Ms River.
One the most spectacular Live Oak Plantings in the Southern US.
Some trees are reaching Heights to 80’ +, with Circumference nearing 30’ and Crown Spreads to 150’.
There are many large Oaks behind and throughout the property.
Josephine Stewart the largest measures-
Circumference 29’ 11”, Height 80’,
Crown Spread EW 150

’ and NS 137.5’
475 Points
Volume-
Trunk 836’
Limbs 2766’
Total 3602 Cubic Feet

Bob Leverett and I are doing a Volume Project with the larger Live Oaks.
This is the second tree we have done the first was last march The Andrew Jackson Oak
in Daphne Ala.
I'll let Bob give the details.
Larry

[BeeEnvironment2020]

Its a bit unrelated, but that alley seems very familiar to me.

Wait one moment here. Isn't that the place where Forrest Gump lived and where the movie took place???

Nice photos and trees nonetheless!

BeeE.

[dbhguru]

BeeE, et al.,

Oak Alley is internationally famous. It has been no stranger to Hollywood. And guess what? Larry is friends with the owner who put Larry up while he modeled the Josephine Stewart Oak. Fancy that. That is just way cool.

The oak modeling project could gain us a lot of valuable attention in time. We'll probably have an article on Oak Alley in American Forests magazine. I'm working on that. And those monster live oaks are literally ambassadors for big trees. The oaks can serve us along several lines. Beyond their visual impressiveness, they are literally hotels for other life forms. And the carbon they store is off the charts.Based on Larry's modded 3,602 ft^3, we can say that the Josephine Stewart has absorbed 156 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere in its 200+ years. But what does this amount mean?

A 14-inch DBH, 50-foot tall live oak will have sequestered approximately one ton of CO2 in about 20 years. So the big oak sequestered CO2 equal to 156 small oaks. That many small trees if planted judiciously would take up a good deal of real estate. So, the big tree represents an efficient way of storing carbon.

Bob

[bbeduhn]

Larry,

I did some volume modeling on the Angel Oak, at John's Island, near Charleston. They wouldn't let me touch the trunk or approach too closely with a tripod. I did get a circumference in 2019. The volume numbers are carefully eyeballed through every branch, so this is an estimate.

2019 numbers

cbh 29'1" 8.87m
avg spread 180.5' 55.01m


2020 numbers

height 66.7' 20.33m
volume 4,172' 118.1m
trunk 1233
limbs 2939
total crown area 20,348' 1889m
longest limb 112.5' 34.29m
460 points

Brian