MANDEVILLE, La. — Old, magnificent live oak trees are crown jewels of the south, loved for their beauty and strength. They exude serenity and are part of the natural landscape we fight to preserve.
Perhaps the most grand of all is the Seven Sisters Oak Tree, located in Mandeville in the Lewisburg Neighborhood, just a short stroll from Lake Pontchartrain.
If it looks enormous, that's because it is. According to the Louisiana Forestry Association it's the "Champion Oak of Louisiana" and the "National Champion on the National Register of Big Trees".
Seven Sisters Live Oak Tree is estimated to be around 1200 years old. Last measured in 2008, the trunk was 467 inches in circumference. That's nearly 40 feet. To put that in perspective, that's four basketball goals stacked on top of one another. The oak has a height of 68 feet and a crown spread of 139 feet.
The owner who first named the tree was one of seven sisters --- and the live oak actually has seven sets of branches leading away from the center trunk. So Seven Sisters Oak is a fitting name.
The tree is the President of the Live Oak Society, a unique organization whose members are all trees - except the Chairman: Coleen Perilloux, who registers the live oaks, maintains the 75-year-old roster and fights for the trees' preservation. There are 8,829 members in the society. The Presidency is reserved for the biggest tree on the registry.
The Seven Sisters Oak Tree survived a near-direct hit from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Live oaks are known as the "hurricane tree" because they can withstand the winds better than other trees because they are wide and plant their roots wide. A live oak can actually take winds over your house and can also shelter people in hurricanes.
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WWL-TV reporter Leslie Spoon can be reached at lspoon@wwltv.com;