A century old oak, slated for the ax by the Department of Transportation and Development, has been spared. Dubbed Mr. Al, this member of the Live Oak Society stood in the way of a proposed service road along U.S. 90, near Freyou Road in Iberia Parish. Members of the New Iberia Optimist Club, along with the oak’s immediate neighbor, Kelli Peltier, banded together to petition the state to reroute the road rather than bulldoze the oak. While DOTD nixed a new road alignment, citing costs, they decided to simply dead end the road on either side of the oak. Call it a service road to nowhere, or the route to a destination oak. Either way, Mr. Al, and all the squirrels, mockingbirds, banana spiders and earthworms that inhabit his ecosystem, say thanks.