I waited until the latest possible time to prepare for the monster. I wanted to have a clear understanding of its forecasted track. As I boarded windows and moved the equipment into open fields (a standard hurricane precaution here for the last half-century), the heat was extreme. It foretold the intensity of what was to come. I had fueled my diesel truck the night before. I gathered food and clothes, and headed to Clarke Jr.’s house in Baton Rouge. To avoid the risk of getting stuck in traffic on the interstate, I had mapped a route that would take me through the ‘woods’. I was in BR’s Garden District in record time, only 2 ½ -hours. Once in the vicinity of Horace Street, I immediately refueled.

That night was rough with little sleep. . The power-lines were whipping in the wind and the high voltage fuses sounded like canons when they blew. But the real wind was still 12-hours away. And we had to evacuate Clarke Jr.’s house due to large tree sections going down in the high speed wind. Since we were nearly 100-miles from the eye of the storm it was hard to imagine what was happening at Shady Pond.

The following day, I purchased a generator and gathered fuel and other supplies. My plan was to attempt the return trip early the following day to the maximum extent possible. The cell signal was lost at about Hammond so I was traveling without backup. The roads were heavily littered with trees and other debris but were passable for skilled drivers. I maneuvered around State Police road blocks and finally arrived at I-59 Exit #3. From that point going was really rough. I was driving under downed trees that barely cleared the cab of my truck.

When I arrived at Shady Pond, the main entrance was inaccessible but I was able to enter the property through the tree farm entrance. I parked in the field and surveyed the damage on foot with camera in hand. It was impossible to describe. But there was surprisingly little building damage. Obviously the huge population of native trees had forced the wind to an altitude well above the ground. This spared the buildings. I moved the equipment back under cover and reconfigured the John Deere to function as a skidder.

The cleanup began almost immediately. My plan was to do enough to gain access to the Christmas trees so they could be straightened to the maximum extent possible. There were 270 native trees down. Most were Water Oaks (There’s a message here). They produced 15 burn piles. The area wide cleanup crews lusted for the piles. But my rule was that the nutrient contained in that wood came from Shady Pond and it would remain at Shady Pond being released in the fires soon to come. The small piles were about the size of a house and the big ones were the size of a small church. The fires were so dramatic that Times Picayune would send their photographer Scott Threldkel to capture them on film.

Once I gained working access to the fields, two friends, Harry Yates and Cline Church, came from Boone, North Carolina with 13 Mexican workers. They straightened 14,000 trees in a single day. And the very first telephone call I received after the huge storm was from Southern Living magazine. They asked if I was OK and if I was going to be able to open for Christmas, I said yes. And they replied, “Good, because we intend to use the power and influence of Southern Living to ‘kick start’ the economy”. And they did; for free. These two acts of compassion were the beginning of an intensely emotional and very wrenching Christmas in 2005. I was very pleased that the farm could help heal at least some of the wounds. In a television interview shortly after the storm, I showed the viewers the giant Live Oak near the big barn. I told them, “Look how beautiful it is. It had gone down in the hurricane of 1947 and never stopped growing. So, today it shows us the future.”

In the interim between Katrina and Christmas, most of the tree farm customers had begun to seriously analyze the consequences of the horrific weather event. With rare exceptions they concluded that human tradition is our anchor. It ensures that we maintain the proper equilibrium. Catastrophic events can occur for many reasons. They can take our homes, our possessions, our livelihoods, or even the lives of friends and family members but they can not take our traditions. Preserving and protecting our traditions is really quite easy. It is a simple personal choice.

It was the fall of 2013 when I discovered a tree growing in Field E that was completely devoid of any disease induced defects. The tree was a Leyland Cypress-Leighton Green and fairly large, about 15-feet. The discovery was a real jolt and really quite embarrassing. I must have passed that tree hundreds of times spraying it, trimming it, cutting the grass around it, and never once did I notice it. So its discovery immediately fell into the ‘highly unlikely’ category. Clearly, the ghosts were at work once again, and one of them must have slapped me and whispered quietly in my ear, “Look at the damn tree. You’ve been going up and down this row for years. Geez, what does it take for you to pay attention.” The other Leighton Greens surrounding the special tree showed varying degrees of disease damage and were even touching the special tree yet it was ‘clean as a whistle’. The found tree was protected with ribbon and signs indicating that it was not to be cut and would be cloned. Interestimgly, the original Leyland Cypress was also a 'found' tree. It was discovered growing on the Leighton Hall Estate in the South of Wales by John Leyland 125-years ago.

Cloning proceeded later that winter and produced about 300-duplicates. These rooted cuttings were planted in Field E once again in early 2015 and became part of a comparative test between the found tree and common Leighton Greens. Neither group was treated for any disease. I allowed nature to take its course without intervening. By the end of the second growing season most of the common Leylands were dead while the clones of the special tree were growing intensely reaching heights of 3 to 4-feet. This project had become my opportunity to watch Darwin’s Law unfold before my very eyes; a true honor.

I had written a very brief synopsis of my project in Shady Pond News shortly after setting up the field trials and received an immediate response from Dr. John Frampton at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. His comment was brief, “Can I join you?” My answer was’ yes’ but little did I know what I had gotten myself into. John Frampton is a world renowned geneticist and he fully intended on dragging his mechanical engineering buddy in to the mysterious world of genomes, RNA, DNA, RNA sequencing, expressive genes, and mutations; all to explain the origins of the special tree. He insisted that I participate in a genetics webinar that spanned 9-time zones; more than a third of the distance around Planet Earth. Then John and I did our own presentation via videoconference explaining the special tree and additional field trials he had established in North Carolina to other Christmas tree producers.

The most fascinating fact I learned on my journey into the world of genetics is that the genome (complete genetic profile) for a Leyland Cypress is 7-times bigger than the genome for a human. Now the self-image we humans hold is that we are superior to virtually every other living thing and in most cases it is true. But when it comes to genetic resources, we find ourselves a bit short; actually 18-billion short. The genome for a human has 3-billion data points but the Leyland’s genome has 21-billion, a stunning deficit. So apparently we humans did some gene culling along the way and just kept the really good ones.

As time passed, I notified the conifer registrar of the Royal Horticultural Society in England regarding the testing in progress on the found tree. The intensity of her enthusiasm was a total surprise. The Royal Horticultural Society is the designated global authority for the assignment of conifer names. The Society registered Shady Pond’s special tree on January 9, 2018. It is now internationally known as x Cuprocyparis leylandii ‘Leighton Green-Gernon’.