The University is taking preventive measures to keep true to the Alma Mater’s line about “stately oaks.”
After lightning recently struck a live oak planted in the Quad, likely during Hurricane Isaac, Facility Services sent Arborist Blane Tullier and Horticulture Attendant Bryce Ingram to install lightning rods in the oaks.
The tree, endowed in honor of Charles E. Severance Sr. and Winifred Loudon Severance, is located in front of Coates Hall with a visibly deep vertical gash in its trunk. The lightning cut is about 10 feet in height and one foot wide. Brown, crunchy leaves hang by its branches, falling to the ground with the light breeze.
In an effort to save the tree, a hose was placed around its roots, constantly supplying it with water.
Ingram said a “deep root injection” of fertilizers and nutrients took place as well.
Ingram and students passing by craned their necks to watch as Tullier was lifted into the canopy of oaks in front of Himes Hall. The boom lift maneuvered him carefully through the branches until it was impossible to go further without breaking limbs.
Then, Tullier got out of the crane’s box and climbed to the highest point of the oak. The branches teetered above the Quad while students observed his pair of work boots and gold hardhat with “LSU” emblazoned on the front.
“The lift obviously can’t reach everything,” Tullier said. “I have to go up.”
Ingram said the crew spiked thick copper wire from “the highest part of the tree” to the base of a tree. An eight-foot rod is buried nearby to direct the lightning away from the oaks, Tullier said.
Half of the oaks in the Quad were installed with lightning protective materials years ago, and now the others are being treated after lightning struck one that previously wasn’t, Tullier said.
“This is kind of a slow process, but we’re trying to do a high quality job, plus we have to look out for all the pedestrians,” Tullier said. “Safety first.”
Tullier said “to lose one in the Quad would be detrimental.” It would take decades for a replaced oak tree to grow to the size of its neighbors in the Quad, he said.
Lee Babin, pre-business administration junior, said the health of the University’s oaks is “most important” to their prominence.
“They give the Quad a unique look. The campus is almost defined by it,” Babin said.
University arborist Blane Tullier installs copper wire in live oak trees in the Quad Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012.
