These are cypress trees growing in the Atchafalaya swamp in Louisiana. The swamp used to be covered in cypress trees, but they were prized for their wood and were mostly fully logged by the end of the 19th century. The ones you see here are relatively new, planted long after the old growth trees were gone.
In a few years that will be downtown Chicago.
back in the day, florida and louisiana seemingly were in a race to see who could lop the most cypress trees. in places in florida it was done at industrial scale, with towns built to house workers and levees dug for roads and railroads. thing is, it's really old-growth cypress that's valuable and it takes centuries, not decades, for cypress to become old-growth. in places like the fakahatchee strand, now a state preserve, we're still working to undo the damage done 70, 80, 90 years ago.
It's the same way throughout the eastern US. Almost all forests are second or third growth. All of the large trees around here (southeastern Ohio) are around 80 years old.
You can see how these trees were planteds in straight lines. Not how nature does it. Old grow forests are mostly gone around the world.
Not planted; resprouted from the stumps. A great feature of cypress.
Where’s the one legged egret?
One of my few egrets.