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As I walk the streets of Bay St. Louis, in addition to driving around the county. I am always amazed at the majesty of our native live oak trees.
Something else 1 think of is whether they are registered with the state through the Society Des Arbres.
Over the years, some of our local majestic live oaks have been registered, but records indicate there only a very few.
This is something that Shawn Prychitko of
the Bav-Waveland Cordon Club wuhn to ^ee reclitieU.
As a member of the Bay-Waveland Garden Club. Shaun has taken the task of registering live oak trees that measure 9-1/2 feet in circum-fcrcncc (36 inches in diameter), 4-1/2 It. above the ground, which is representative of one hundred years of age.
The Bav-Wavcland Garden Club docs not charge for their 'ground work', for the issuance of a certificate by the Society Des Arbres. There is a $ 10 fee for one tree and a group of up to five trees is $12. This is only for live oak trees in the county. Of course, donations arc acceptcd.
Shaun says the oldest registered tree in the area she has been able to locate in the records thus far on is on Citizen Street in Bay St. Louis. It was registered in 1990, and it was estimated to be 540 years old at the time. That would age it 560 years old today.
While driving, 1 do not have the time for my mind to wander, as when I am walking around the city on my regular exercise route.
There arc times, since 1 have been in the news business for over two-thirds of my life, if these trees could talk. I just wonder what great stories they could tell.
Shaun reports there arc trees registered in the 400. 300, 200 and 100-years-old groups.
Was it someone who planted, or was it a bird or an animal that buried the acorn for future food, or did some one dig one up and replant it in another area?
Growing up in my Waveland neighborhood, I was always aware of the beauty of the canopy of the live oaks along Nicholson Avenue from the railroad tracks to the beach. From what I understand, those oaks from the railroad tracks to the beach were planted by the Nicholson family.
Of course, there arc only a few left today due to utility progress, storms etc.
I still remember the older oaks at the corner of Nicholson and Jeff Davis, where as a kid, my brothers and I would huddle behind one of them to get out of the winter winds.
1 think about the hundreds of marble games I was involved in with my brothers and school
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