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USDA yearly tree sale scheduled for Thursday
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| By: ADAM NORTHAM, DAILY LEADER Staff Writer |
February 11, 2009 |
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The local USDA office's annual tree sale begins bright and early Thursday morning, and officials are preparing for the stampede of eager gardeners who make the event a brief, frenzied success year after year.
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The sale begins at 7:30 a.m. at the National Guard Armory on Highway 84, but the approximately 5,000 trees and shrubs selling from $1 to $5 are usually gone within two hours, said yearly "worker bee" Lynn Richardson.
"We're usually sold out by 9:30 a.m.," she said.
Richardson said the sale will offer several varieties of trees, such as hardwood, ornamentals, flowering ornamentals, fruit trees and free pine saplings. A full list of trees for sale will be available at the armory Thursday morning, she said.
"It's a good way to get what you want in your yard, and it doesn't take long to get these little guys to grow large," Richardson said. "You'll never beat these prices. You can get five or six Crape Myrtles for what you would pay for one at Wal-Mart."
Richardson said the sale is conducted on a first come, first served basis. She encouraged interested tree shoppers to arrive as early as possible, as the people are usually lined up out of the armory before the doors are open.
Tony Rogers, a soil conservation technician with USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, said the purpose of the annual tree sale is to encourage people to plant trees. The planting season lasts from December to March, he said, and the trees that will be sold Thursday are bare root saplings, which have a good chance of survival.
The tree sale is the Lincoln County USDA office's way of encouraging tree planting, Rogers said, pointing out that most of Mississippi's 82 counties have some program to encourage conservation.
Rogers said the ways in which timber is beneficial to Mississippians are "endless."
"It's mind-boggling how important trees are to humanity," Rogers said. "When you go to the bathroom every day you probably use something made out of trees. Your home is made out of trees; your bed is made out of trees. Fruit-bearing trees produce things we enjoy eating. Not to mention the whole oxygen thing, carbon sequestration and all that."
Rogers expects approximately 200 people to attend the tree sale. He said money raised at the tree sale would be used to buy more trees for next year's program.
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©The Daily Leader 2009
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