CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Who will speak for the trees? The mission of the Lorax, the famous Dr. Seuss character, is being continued locally by arborist and artist Jake Van Yahres. The 38-year-old VCU graduate installed his latest work of guerilla art outside the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library.

It’s a 3 and 1/2 foot tall, 8-foot-wide rendition of the Lorax, using leaves as the character’s signature mustache. The Lorax is holding a white sign with black lettering imploring people to, “Leave the leaves, save the trees.” Van Yahres is hoping people will consider not blowing, raking and bagging their leaves this fall, because they’re a valuable source of nourishment for trees.

“In the forest setting, the leaves fall. Nobody picks them up, right? You go to the forest, and eventually you’ll come back in the summertime and the leaves have disintegrated,” Van Yahres told Cville Right Now on Friday. “And what’s happening with the leaves is, they break down. The nutrients leech off the leaves and the trees drink the nutrients back up. And so in an urban environment, 80% of the nutrients come from the trees’ fallen leaves. And when you when you bag those up, you’re basically robbing the tree of all its nutrients.”

Van Yahres, who installed a grass portrait of Civil Rights leader Harriet Tubman in Market Street Park in June, said he’s been contemplating a piece of public art focused on fallen leaves for over a month. For the past two weeks, he planned out the Lorax installation. The Lorax is made of plastic and wooden posts support the structure from behind. Some of the leaves on the character’s eyebrows and mustache are stuck to the plastic, so even if it gets windy, the character should remain recognizable.

“It always helps to use something that people know or can relate to,” he said. “So, whether that’s like a famous person or in this instance, like a famous tale from Dr. Seuss, or famous character, I was trying to think of characters who are synonymous with helping trees.”

As for the location, Van Yahres grew up going to the Jefferson-Madison library, and he called the Shumard Oak tree near his artwork “the most prominent” tree in the city.

Like the Tubman piece, Van Yahres didn’t seek or receive permission to install his art. He arrived at the location around 7 a.m. and said he did come across a maintenance worker at the library as he was finishing the installation. The man wasn’t upset about the art. He even asked to take a picture of it for his granddaughter.

Now, Van Yahres hopes the art helps spread the word about the importance of letting leaves disintegrate and replenish the soil.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a little while. What can I do artistically to kind of further that message?” he said. “You go around town and there’s all these leaves out on the street and a lot of times they’re in bags. I was like, ‘What, how can I use like things that are already there, but turn them into art?””