In an effort to help replenish trees destroyed on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Mississippi State University’s Coastal Research and Extension Center has grown saplings in a development called the Perseverance Oak Project. 
Three saplings were planted last week in Long Beach and three more were planted in Gulfport.
   Wayne Porter, who has served as the Regional Extension Coordinator for the Coastal Region of Mississippi State Extension Service, explained how the project began. He said John Hairston, CEO of Hancock Bank, approached Patricia Knight, former head of the Coastal R&E Center, to see about growing oak trees from seeds from live oaks that are currently on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. 
    “One of the trees is the Friendship Oak that’s located on the Long Beach campus of Southern Mississippi. John Hairston’s thinking was we collect the acorns, we grow the oak trees and then promote them as being something that represented the perseverance of the people of the state of Mississippi. Of how these live oaks have persevered for so many centuries along the coast,” Porter said.
 Porter said MSU is using its expertise in growing trees to help with the project, and it has been designed to be a long term forest live oak regeneration project. Porter also confirmed the project is an action to plant trees in replacing those that were destroyed as a result of Hurricane Katrina. 
 Specific groups, such as 4H club members and the Boy Scouts, will collect acorns from live oak trees along the coast.  MSU will then take them to grow seedlings, which will later be large enough to plant along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. 
    Porter said the seedlings will represent a historic tree, such as the Fellowship Live Oak Tree, which is located at Long Beach. 
Glenn Hughes, Extension Forestry professor at MSU, had a role in the past to select the seedlings that were for specific live oaks and other species, these include  water oaks, that could have grown due to a mix up of acorns. Hughes, who would then make sure the live oaks were planted, said they did not sustain nearly as much damage as many other trees during Hurricane Katrina.  This is the reason there has been an interest to grow live oaks along the coast. 
      “This is not going to be our last hurricane, we know that,” Hughes said. “This may not even be our last Katrina, and there’s no telling when the next really big one could be.” 
   “Live oaks in particular have shown themselves to be very resilient to these hurricane force winds,” Hughes said. “Most of the live oaks on the coast did withstand Katrina.” 
      Hughes said branches were broken off but many other trees, such as other oaks or pines, snapped or blew over and that type of wholesale destruction was not the case for live oaks. 
  This is an ongoing community development project and will continue each year with the number of trees planted varying depending on the availability. 
   For more information regarding the Perseverance Live Oak Project, contact Wayne Porter at 662-769-9937.