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Saving the Live Oaks of BSL- The Fou' Vard Cleaver
http://vv\v '.lfourthward.com/saving-the-live-oaks-of-bsl.html
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Saving the Live Oaks of Bay St. Louis
Attention community members—if you chensh our region’s live oaks and happen to have a live oak on your land that is at least 100 years old- call Shawn Prychitko, a Bay St. Louis resident whose focus on identifying and registehng old oak trees benefits not oniy our Fourth Ward, but the entire community.
Over the years both the Bay/Wavefand Garden Club and the Hancock Counry Historical Society have alternately and collectively pursued a way to document those aged oak trees Shawn describes as living landmarks.'
For nearly a year now, Shawn has volunteered for both organizations, taking on the job of finding old oaks in our area and, if size and age requirements are met. registering them. All trees registered must measure nine and a half feet in circumference, which is representative of 100 years of age. The oak then may be named and may take its place among the state registry of historic grand live oaks maintained by the Societe Des Arbres. The Society of Trees, founded in 1971 by Ocean Springs resident, Mrs. D.L. “Par Connor has as one of its purposes to preserve all species of trees which possess a living association with historical events of the area.
All trees property registered with the Society are declared ‘indigenous natural assets possessing intrinsic value worthy of area protection.”
Most coastal residents know the gracious 500-year old "Friendship Oak." Located on the grounds of the Gulf Park campus of the University of Southern Mississippi, the oak played a role in education, serving as a place where faculty held classes. Surely it earned its name by serving as a place where generations of students have met to socialize under its cool shade.
But Shawn gently reminds the listener that “every tree has a story.* And indeed, surely those of us who grew up in a landscape studded with live
oaks remember our own special trees—the one climbed as children or the one where your family picnicked or the old gnarled tree at the end of
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3/5/12 12:48 PM