TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) -- Dead trees throughout the city of Tupelo will be uprooted over the next several weeks to make room for new ones.
The process is not as easy as it sounds.
"We will let them get to what should be a pretty size and move them to the streets. If you put them in there too little they just don't show up well," said David Knight, Horticulturist.
To save money, the city buys small trees for $7 to $10 each and grow them on the farm for four to five years. While it's time consuming, Knight said it's much cheaper than paying close to $200 a piece to buy the trees that are already 4-years-old.
"If you put a little tree with a canopy of trees downtown it takes years for it to be recognized. But when you plant one of these trees, it just always get noticed," Knight said.
Some trees will be planted in surrounding parks while others will be planted downtown to replace damaged trees and the trees that died over the summer because of the drought like conditions.
The farm has close to 1,500 trees and Knight said its one of the largest city owned farms in the state.
"By doing this, we have our own native trees here that are grown in this soil and in this temperature so we have probably better results when we do plant them," Knight added.
Knight said the city plants at least 200 trees every year through out the city and while they have an 80 percent live rate, the city plants just as many on the farm to keep the pipe line full.
