Coweta County

will soon have an "official" tree.

During a Coweta

County Commission meeting last month, the commission heard a report from

the Greenspace Committee about selecting an official tree for the county.

The tree will

be selected by elementary school students in the county. Students will

pick from a yellow poplar, a water oak and a sawtooth oak. Students in

the third, fourth and fifth grade will vote this fall during field trips

to the Georgia Youth and Science Technology Center in Shenandoah. Students

in kindergarten through second grade will vote in their classrooms because

their field trips are no scheduled to the center until later in the year.

Officials at

the science center will compile the results when voting ends Nov. 15 and

announce the results in early December.

In deciding

which tree to select, students will receive an abundance of information

about each tree and the importance of greenspace in the community.

Each school

that participates in the program will receive a tree from the Georgia

Forestry Commission or the Greenspace Citizen Advisory Committee. In December,

the

Greenspace

Citizen Advisory Committee will ask each school to name the type of tree

that is desired. Students can choose the winning tree or maybe one that

did not win but was the favorite of the individual school. The choice

is up to each school. During the month of February 2003, the Greenspace

Citizen Advisory Committee and the Georgia Forestry Commission will schedule

tree-planting ceremonies for participating schools located outside of

municipal jurisdictions.

Commission

Vernon "Mutt" Hunter applauded the program, but had one question.

"Why wasn't

the white oak selected? It's one of my favorite trees," he said.

Greenspace

officials said the committee tried to make their selections on trees that

were found in great abundance in the county.