Saving Louisiana's Coastal Cypress Forest

The Sierra Club's Delta Chapter (Louisiana) has joined with other groups to form the Save Our Cypress Coalition to raise awareness and stop the logging of Louisiana's coastal cypress forests to make cypress mulch. "Threatened cypress stands are being clear-cut for an unsustainable and unnecessary cypress mulch industry," says Baton Rouge Sierra Club leader Jeffrey Dubinsky. Promoting other gardening options like pine straw and eucalyptus mulch will help stop the destruction of cypress wetlands that provide habitat for endangered species and barriers to flooding and hurricanes. Delta Chapter activist Dean Wilson, below, conducts tours of the cypress forests and spearheads the Sierra Club's campaign. On February 22 the Baton Rouge Advocate ran a front-page story on the "Battle Over Cypress," and ran video spots on the six 'o'clock and ten 'oclock news that featured Wilson and Dubinsky.