The department of campus landscape at Mississippi State University proposed plans to replace the 103 trees lost to Hurricane Katrina and the Sep. 25 tornado.
Director of campus landscape Tim Lacy said the cost to buy and plant one tree is in the $750 range, and the department of landscape needs monetary donations to help fund the project.
Replacing all 103 trees would cost $120,600.
So far the project hasn’t received any money, but Student Association President John David Cole said, “I can see the SA organization taking an aggressive role in raising funds for the campus landscaping department.”
John Rush, the director of development for the College of Engineering, said the Alumni Association also plans to help contribute to the project by offering people the opportunity to plant trees in honor of individuals if they donate the cost of having the tree planted.
“I hate seeing old trees like those go, so I’d be willing to donate some money,” senior psychology major Phillips Strickland said.
Other students, like senior geography major Allison Ginn, said they are willing to donate time instead of money to help plant the new trees.
Trees are important to MSU’s campus because studies have shown there is a direct correlation between enrollment numbers and what a campus looks like, Cole said.
“Large trees help frame a college campus, and they give it an inviting and collegiate look,” Lacy said.
The landscape department would try to replace the lost trees with a mix of maples and oaks because maple trees grow fast and produce nice colors while oaks live long enough to be enjoyed by future generations, he said.
Since many of the trees damaged from these storms, like the one that was cut down between The Union and Lee Hall, were close to 200 years old, it will take hundreds of years for the new trees to resemble them, Lacy said.