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Hey Gracie,
This article describes the many possible functions of Cypress Knees and might be useful to your research.

http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/2000-60-4-cypress-knees-an-enduring-enigma.pdf

Cypress Knees: An Enduring Enigma - Arnold Arboretum<http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/2000-60-4-cypress-knees-an-enduring-enigma.pdf>
Cypress Knees: An Enduring Enigma Christopher H. Briand The cypresses keep their secrets from the prying investigator.-J. E. Rogers,1905 he function of cy- mtrigued t press knees has long botanists. In 1819, Fran~ois Andre Michaux wrote, "No cause can be assigned for their existence," and in 1882 Asa Gray concurred.
arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu


________________________________
From: Guilbeau, David (Contractor) <guilbeaud@contractor.usgs.gov>
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2020 10:12 AM
To: Wright, Kacie (Contractor) M <kmwright@contractor.usgs.gov>; Griffard, Gabriel (Contractor) P <ggriffard@contractor.usgs.gov>; Guidry, Jennifer (Contractor) R <jrguidry@contractor.usgs.gov>; Ladner, Kathy (Contractor) M <ladnerk@contractor.usgs.gov>
Subject: Fw: The Bald Cypress

Here's a question sent to LaCoast.gov.


David Guilbeau

* Note my new email address: guilbeaud@contractor.usgs.gov

Microcomputer Systems Specialist
Cherokee Nation Technologies contractor in support of USGS
USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center
700 Cajundome Blvd
Lafayette, LA 70506
(337) 266-8622
(337) 266-8513 FAX
_________________
www.LaCoast.gov<http://www.LaCoast.gov>

________________________________________
From: gah015@latech.edu <gah015@latech.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 9, 2020 09:10 PM
To: lacoast@nwrccom.cr.usgs.gov
Subject: The Bald Cypress

Dear CWPPRA,
   My name is Gracie Hawkins and I am a college student at Louisiana
Tech University. I am an education major and in my Science class we
have recently discussed phenomenon's. We have a project to complete
where we find an occurring phenomenon in Louisiana and create an
online poster. Through the NGSS website on phenomenon's, I found
information about cypress knees. I then searched more about these
knees and came across the article titled, "The Bald Cypress", which
was published on November 1, 2017 on the CWPPRA website. I am emailing
you today to ask for any information you have on cypress knees. What
is your knowledge and experience with the cypress knee phenomenon?
Thank you for your time,
Gracie Hawkins.


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Cypress knees are a unique structure formed by the roots above cypress trees. These knees are in the subfamily of Taxodioideae. Cypress knees are generally seen growing on trees in swamps. The knees are above the normal level of water which have a vertical angle through the water. Cypress knees also create support and stabilization during a flood.

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Grade level explanation of cypress knees

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Grade level explanation of cypress knees

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Cypress knees are created above the ground of a cypress tree. These trees particularly live in a swamp. The knees stick up above the water and can stop the fast flow of water during a flood. Some evidence tells us that cypress knees provide oxygen to the roots so that they grow stronger.

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Louisiana Cypress Products Facebook page

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Louisiana Cypress Products Facebook page

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Louisiana Cypress Products. 203 次赞 · 1 人在谈论. LCP sells cypress knees from the Louisiana bayous to artists across the country.

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The grade levels appropriate for this phenomenon is second through fifth grade.

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Lesson Plan for Sue Owen's "Cypress Knees"
by Margaret Simon

The cypress trees of Louisiana are beautiful trees. They can tell the weather with their fine needles. The ones in my backyard are beginning to turn brown. Soon I will have to sweep the deck to clear off all the fallen needles. This way I know that fall is near.

Sue Owen takes us beyond the physical appearance of the cypress tree and into its soul. How many of us have seen the knees of the cypress and wondered about their purpose? Sue Owen helps us see them for more than wood and soil. We see a burial ground and life inside the swamp.

I love the way Sue Owen plays with language in her poem. The tree is personified and has body parts that rise up out the swamp because "bones never stay down for long," especially in a swamp. Try some language play with your students.

Discuss double meanings with your students. Advertisements use puns all the time to get their point across, "Nothing runs like a Deere." Find puns and double meanings in the newspaper, magazines, other books and poems. Using double meanings can make your reader think twice about what you are writing about. Don't we all see cypress knees differently now that we've read Sue Owen's poem.

Try a double meaning in your writing. Begin with obvious ones, the leg of the table, an arm of the chair. Try on new ones, "Dawn slowly brightens/ the empty baseball field,/ polishing the diamond/ until it shines." (From Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher) Do not explain the double meaning; leave that to the reader's interpretation. Like the alligator lives for play, take a moment to play with language and see where it may lead.

Lesson Plan for Sue Owen's "Cypress Knees"
by Laurie Williams

Read the poem aloud in class and have students note the characteristics of the cypress tree as they listen.

Discuss the possible reasons why cypress trees have "knees."

What causes the cypress to have knees? Do any other trees have knees?

What happens below the water line? In the poem, Ms. Owen calls the roots below the water line the feet and toes. Do the roots below the water line look like feet and/or toes?

What areas where cypress trees grow?

What does the cypress need from its environment in order to survive?

In the poem, Ms. Owen calls the knees bones and ties them to the dead trying to come back. What is the life cycle in the swamp? What nutrients does the tree need to survive and where do those nutrients come from?

What other plants have unique growths?

For a writing project, choose a plant and write a poem detailing its characteristics. Use "Cypress Knees" as a model.

Lesson Plan for Sue Owen's "Cypress Knees"
by Laurie Williams

Hand the poem out to students and have them read it silently.

After they have read it once, have them go through the poem and circle the human body parts mentioned. Knees is mentioned several times, have them circle each instance.

After they have circled the body parts, have students go through the poem again and box or underline the tree related words.

What is the ratio of human body parts to tree related words?

Is that ratio equal throughout the poem?

Does any one portion of the poem have more human body part words? more tree related words?

How many words total does this poem have?

How many of those words are human body part words? tree related words?

What percentage of the words is human body part words? tree related words?

For a writing exercise, have students choose a math concept and write a poem detailing and personifying that concept. Use "Cypress Knees" as a model.

This poem was catalogued in English, Lesson Plans, Math, Poems, Science and written by Sue Owen. Bookmark the permalink.

About Sue Owen

Ms. Owen taught as Poet-in-Residence at Louisiana State University and received the Professional Artist of the Year award from the Louisiana State Arts Council. She is the author of four books of poetry.

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Lesson Plan for Sue Owen's "Cypress Knees" by Margaret Simon The cypress trees of Louisiana are beautiful trees. They can tell the weather with their fine needles. The ones in my backyard are beginning to turn brown. Soon I will have to sweep the deck to clear off all the fallen needles.

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A swamp is an area of land permanently saturated, or filled, with water.

The lush growth in a Louisiana swamp is indescribable. You have to see it to believe it.

The most impressive objects in the swamp are the cypress trees which are very graceful in their structure, with their reddish bark, exquisitely bent branches, and delicately fine leaves.

Bald cypress prefer wet, swampy soils on riverbanks, floodplains, or wet depressions, but are widely adaptable. Unlike most conifers (which are evergreens), the bald cypress is deciduous, and loses its needles in the fall, giving the tree a "bald" appearance).

The Louisiana Cypress grows slowly, but can grow to great height, so that in some swamps, though tall, they will not have a cone on top, which has been swept away by past hurricanes. Cypress trees can live to be hundreds of years old.

The Atchafalaya Basin is the nation's largest river swamp, containing almost one million acres of the nation's most significant bottomland hardwoods, swamps, bayous and backwater lakes.

The Atchafalaya River meanders from near Simmesport southward past Pierre Part down to Morgan City and the Gulf of Mexico. The Atchafalaya Basin is a unique combination of wetlands, bayous, marshes, estuaries,and river delta area. It is often called "America's Wetland", and covers an area 20 miles wide and 150 miles long.

Some interesting facts about the Atchafalaya Basin:

It's larger than the Florida Everglades.

It's five times more productive than any other river basin in North America.

About 65 species of reptiles and amphibians inhabit the Basin.

Over 250 known species of birds fly in the Basin.

Other species of animals found in the area include the Florida panther, black bear, bobcat, nutria, mink, fox, muskrat, beaver, otter and raccoon.

The Basin is home to the largest nesting concentration of bald eagles in the south central United States.

Atchafalaya Swamp Visitors Center in Butte LaRose, near Henderson on Interstate Highway I-10 (photograph by the author)

There are more than 100 different species of fish and aquatic life in the Basin.

The Basin has an estimated average annual commercial harvest of nearly 22 million pounds of crawfish.

The Basin contains the largest contiguous bottomland hardwood forest in North America and is the largest overflow alluvial hardwood swamp in the United States.

An American-Indian word, " Atchafalaya" (ah-CHA-fa-LIE-ah) means long river. Established in 2006, the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area stretches across 14 parishes in south-central Louisiana.

It is among the most culturally rich and ecologically varied regions in the United States, home to the widely recognized Cajun culture as well as a diverse population of European, African, Caribbean and Native-American descent.

One of the most natural and least-altered river swamps in the United States is the Honey Island Swamp.

It is located in southeast Louisiana in St. Tammany Parish.

The swamp is bordered on the north by U.S. 11, on the south by Lake Borgne, on the east by the Pearl River and the west by the West Pearl River.

Read more about the Honey Island Swamp.

One of the most popular things to do for visitors to Louisiana is touring the swamps! Most tours are concentrated in South Louisiana as shown in the map below of major concentrations of swamp tours.

In the greater New Orleans area, there are many swamp tour options in communities such as Marrero, Westwego, Braithwaite, Lafitte, Des Allemands and Laplace.

Others tours originate in South Louisiana cities such as Breaux Bridge, Henderson, Slidell and Thibodaux as well as in the Atchafalaya Basin.

Louisiana has some of the most extensive wetlands, swamps, marshes, bottomlands, estuaries and river systems in the United States. A partial list is included below:

Bayou Teche National Wildlife Regus - 9,000 acres of bottomland forest and swamp

Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge - 43,000 acres in Union and Ouachita parishes

Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuse - 24,000 acres urban refuge

Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge - 36,000 acres of riverine swamps and hardwood uplands

White Lakes Wetlands Wildlife Conservation Area - 71,000 acres south of Gueydan in the Mermantau River Basin

ROckefeller State Wildlife Refuge - 76,000 acres of coastal marsh located in Cameron and Vermilion parishes on the Gulf of Mexico

Sabine National Wildlife Refuge - 125,000 of coastal marsh located between Sabine and Calcasieu lakes

The wood produced from the Louisiana Cypress will not rot, is resistant to insects, and yet being a hardwood, is a soft one and easy to work.

From the earliest days of European settlement, Louisiana cypress trees served the people moving into the area. Cypress wood was beautiful. It was resistant to decay, a good thing in the humid Louisiana environment. It was used for caskets, water tanks, fortresses, ships and in the construction of homes and animal shelters.

The first settlers in the region used cypress lumber for their houses, fences and boats but it was not until the late 1800s that extensive cypress harvesting began. Production peaked around 1913; and by the 1930s all but scattered small islands of cypress had been cut-over.

And for a State susceptible to hurricanes and tropical storms, the vast coastal cypress forests help to protect the Louisiana coast from the ravages of violent storms and erosion of the coastline.

Cypress trees in a Louisiana swamp (photo by the author)

When located in swampy soils, the bald cypress forms " cypress knees" with age that grow up from the roots, probably for stability.

Lowland or swamp-grown cypresses found in flooded or flood-prone areas tend to be buttressed and "kneed."

Some scientists also believe that the knees may help in providing oxygen to the tree. In areas where the cypress roots are submerged, the knees, a part of the root system, stand above the water level and they may help bring oxygen to the tree.

Selected for its historical and economic importance to the state as well as its abundance and its aesthetic beauty, a bill was drafted and passed through the Louisiana Legislature.

By legislative Act No. 49, the bald cypress was made the official state tree of the state of Louisiana on May 26, 1963.

Act No. 49 identifies the official tree as " bald cypress" ( Taxodium distichum), offering that the bald cypress is commonly known as the "cypress" tree. Today, the tree is often referred to as the bald cypress.

Sinker cypress can be found in bogs, bayous, and river bottoms from North Carolina to Texas, wherever 19th century loggers cut old growth timber and used waterways to float the logs downriver to mills close to ports where the lumber could be shipped and used to build growing settlements and cities.

Well before the Civil War, loggers upriver would cut their lumber and tie it together - sinkers and floaters - to take downriver. Often they would lose some logs along the way, which have become today's sinker cypress, sinker pine, even walnut and other varieties. Over the years, the river bottom became inundated with these logs, which are prized today for their color and very tight ring count.

The largest bald cypress in the United States is located in Louisiana on Cat Island near St. Francisville. The massive tree measures 53 feet in circumference at breast height. The very durability and sturdiness that made cypress the wood of choice for the building of New Orleans and towns all over Louisiana has helped the surviving old giants endure through the centuries.

The intent of the Louisiana Purchase Cypress Legacy program is to commemorate the state's natural heritage by identifying and landmarking trees, with an emphasis on the bald cypress and tupelo, that are at least 200 years old, and alive at the time of the Louisiana Purchase.

The Louisiana State Museum system operates a facility in Patterson, Louisiana, housing two unique museums. The Wedell-Williams Memorial Aviation Museum is named after Jimmie Wedell and Harry Williams, two of Louisiana's aviation pioneers, the museum showcases numerous aircraft, 1930s air race trophies and memorabilia.

Included in the same building is the Cypress Sawmill Museum which exhibits a variety of artifacts, photographs and films of this early regional industry. Cypress lumber harvested and milled in Louisiana was shipped in mass quantities across the United States.

The town of Patterson was once home to the largest cypress sawmill in the world, owned by Frank B. Williams, and in 1997 the Louisiana State Legislature designated Patterson as the Cypress Capitol of Louisiana.

The Patterson Cypress Sawmill Festival is an annual event held the first weekend of April at Kemper Williams Park in Patterson. Attendance is normally about 35,000 for a three-day event. The festival is a family oriented and community event. It consists of a midway with amusement rides and games, arts and crafts show, car show, poker run, fun walk, gumbo cook-off, softball tournament, fishing tournament, golf tournament, petting zoo, old engine display, RV camping, lumber jack show, musical entertainment, and lots more!

Of the approximately one million acres of cypress found in Louisiana in the 1800s, an estimated 800,000 acres exists today, totaling about 1 billion board feet. These trees have been growing for 100 plus years. Some estimates that Louisiana has 221 million board feet of growth each year. The annual cypress harvest is estimated at 30 million board feet of cypress each year.

During the early 2000s, many cypress swamps were clear cut to make cypress mulch. This process became a volatile issue, and today much of clear cutting has been halted.

Cypress is used today to make porch swings, tables, furniture, ceiling beams, cabinets, and other products requiring a durable wood. The Leyland Cypress is commercially grown in Louisiana for use as "you cut it" Christmas trees, and as a popular residential landscape tree.

Louisiana's forestlands cover 48% of the state's area, totaling 13.8 million acres. Private, non-industrial landowners own 62 percent of the state's forestland, forest products industries own 29 percent and the general public owns 9 percent.

This renewable resource provides the raw material for Louisiana's second largest manufacturing employer: the forest products industry, which includes over 900 companies in 45 parishes directly employing over 25,000 people.

An additional 8,000 people are employed in the harvesting and transportation of the resource. Louisiana's forests provide a multitude of other benefits, including clean air and water, wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities and scenic beauty .

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A swamp is an area of land permanently saturated, or filled, with water. The lush growth in a Louisiana swamp is indescribable. You have to see it to believe it. The most impressive objects in the swamp are the cypress trees which are very graceful in their structure, with their reddish bark, exquisitely bent branches, and delicately fine leaves.