A chip on their shoulder - Louisiana - cypress mulch - Brief Article

Sierra, Jan-Feb, 2003 by Elisa Freeling

Louisiana gardeners who spread rich-looking orange-red cypress mulch in their yards may not realize they're helping to liquidate their natural heritage. Now, the Sierra Club's Delta Chapter is out to tell them there are other ways to retain moisture, prevent weeds, and protect their plants. "The cypress is a part of our culture," says Caryn Schoeffler, chair of the Honey Island Group. "We're trying to raise awareness about a disappearing ecosystem." Slow-growing trees that thrive in fresh-water swamps, bald cypresses are disappearing all over the Southeast. While older trees were generally cut for lumber, with their tops used for mulch, increasing demand by landscapers has led to the chipping of entire trees, as well as the harvesting of younger ones for timber. The market is driven by an outdated assumption that cypress mulch is exceptionally durable. That may have been true before the last sizeable and unprotected old-growth stands, whose heartwood contained a preservative-like chemical, were cut years ago. But it is not the case today.

Spurred by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decision last year to allow a landowner with 7,000 acres of cypress swamp to cut down his trees, the Delta Chapter took its cause directly to consumers. "We've talked to towns and parishes to ask them not to use cypress mulch, and we've convinced five so far," says Schoeffler. "We're going to gardening clubs to tell them there are alternatives. Next we're going to Home Depot." "Pine can be just as good a mulch," adds chapter chair Maurice Coman, "and you can buy it colored with an environmentally safe red dye," so it has the prized look of cypress. "People think cypress is superior, but it's really just aesthetics."