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City wants to cut down her family's 'spirit tree.' She's fighting back

Lynda Bermuda protests the removal of a sacred tree in her yard on Oct. 25, 2024. Construction crews damaged the root system of the Chinese Tallow earlier this week.
Matt Bloom
/
WWNO
Lynda Bermuda protests the removal of a sacred tree in her yard on Oct. 25, 2024. Construction crews damaged the root system of the Chinese Tallow earlier this week.

A New Orleans woman has taken up residence atop a decades-old tree in her yard to protest its removal after city officials informed her it was permanently damaged during street construction.

Carrying a cot and several jugs of water, Lynda Bermuda climbed 10 feet up into the Chinese Tallow in front of her home in the city’s Carrollton neighborhood on Friday and pledged to stay put.

“It’s my spirit tree,” Bermuda said. “I feel like if they take it out, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.”

Bermuda, whose family is part Cherokee, has a sacred bond with the tree and considers herself spiritually connected to it. Her father, Joe, planted it in 1973, the same year she was born, she said.

The damage to its root system appeared to be an accident. City workers were digging along Adams Street on Tuesday as part of street improvements when they cut into the tree’s root system, according to Bermuda.

She called the city’s Department of Parks and Parkways to report the damage. The agency sent an arborist to conduct an inspection. Afterwards, the arborist and agency officials informed her that it needed to be removed, Bermuda said.

“I’ve been in tears ever since,” she said. “I can’t eat. I had no choice.”

A request for comment from the mayor’s office wasn’t returned by deadline.

Construction crews damaged the root system of the Chinese Tallow earlier this week.
Matt Bloom
/
WWNO
Construction crews damaged the root system of the Chinese Tallow earlier this week.

A city employee on site of Bermuda’s protest on Friday declined to comment, but told Bermuda that no action would be taken to remove the tree until higher-up officials could meet with her.

Police were called to the scene, but did not try to remove Bermuda. A small cadre of neighbors and tree advocates also set up shop to support her in her stand against the tree’s removal.

Susannah Burley, an organizer with Sustaining Our Urban Landscape, a grassroots organization that advocates for maintaining the city’s urban canopy, said the damage to Bermuda’s family tree was the latest in a string of incidents involving historic New Orleans trees.

“This is a bigger problem,” she said. “There are laws on the books about how roadwork is to be done regarding tree protection. You have to use air spades and other equipment that preserves the integrity of the root systems while you do the construction.”

New Orleans’ urban canopy has seen a steady decline in tree numbers in recent years due to storm damage, a lack of upkeep and other issues. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the city’s canopy coverage was around 30%. Now, it’s closer to 18.5%. The city’s Climate Action Plan set a goal of 10% coverage in every neighborhood. More trees could help with stormwater drainage, cool down the city and improve peoples’ health.

But accidents have made headlines several times over the past few years.

A construction project in Gentilly damaged the roots of several live oak trees along St. Roch Avenue in March. A beloved live oak along St. Charles was illegally chopped down in June, shocking neighbors.

City leaders have pledged to do more to protect vegetation, but critics say there hasn’t been enough concrete action.

“Why is this accident happening at every road work construction site?” Burley said. “We need new tree production legislation, but even bigger than that is to enforce the legislation we have right now.”

A coalition of tree advocacy groups called Save Trees with Ordinance Protection (STOP) is trying to get the city council to update the city’s code for tree protection, which hasn’t changed since 1956. DPW presented a draft of a new tree protection ordinance at a city council meeting in early October, but advocates criticized the document for poor noticings requirements, a lack of transparency around the powers of DPW and a lack of due process.

A coalition of groups that care about trees is calling on the City of New Orleans to introduce an ordinance that protects them , saying the city is not following through on its commitments to improve canopy coverage.

“While this ordinance is progress, it is just a revision of a 1956 document, and I don’t mean to insult, but it takes us to 1976, ” Joseph Evans III, an arborist and member of the STOP coalition said at the city council meeting.

Councilmember Lesli Harris said another draft of the ordinance will not come soon to allow time for public comment. Public comments can be sent to Lesli.Harris@nola.gov and Matthew.Schoenberger@nola.gov of District B Office and parksandparkways@nola.gov.

At Friday’s protest, Bermuda said she felt defiant and determined to keep her family’s tree rooted in her lawn. She packed a portable phone charger, a pillow, blankets and more to keep her comfortable overnight.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Bermuda said. “We are Native American from Cherokee. Our belief is that there's spirit in everything. You have to always only take what you need from the Earth.”

Matt hails from the Midwest. Despite living in California and Colorado for the past 7 years, he still says “ope” when surprised. He earned his Bachelor’s of Arts in Journalism from Indiana University. He reports breaking news, human interest feature stories and deeply-reported enterprise pieces.