City officials are planning an inventory of trees in the historic section of Friendship Cemetery to assess their health and determine whether any pose a risk to headstones or monuments.
Susan Wilder, city grant administrator, said there have been dead trees and large limbs in the past that have fallen in the cemetery and damaged markers and headstones on the way down.
“We want to protect the integrity of the historical section, and this will give us advice on which trees may need to be removed quicker than others and different things we can do,” Wilder told the mayor and city council during a Wednesday work session at City Hall.
Wilder and Rogena Bonner, director for the cemetery, presented the board with a request Wednesday to contract Tupelo-based Fulgham Tree Preservation to conduct the survey for $9,500, with the total cost covered by a Mississippi Forestry Commission grant awarded to the city earlier this year.
If the council approves the request during its Tuesday meeting, the inventory will specifically assess the age and health of trees in the historical section, located on the southernmost part of the cemetery.
“Out of respect for the cemetery and the history of the cemetery, we don’t want anything to be damaged by the trees,” Wilder said. “We also don’t want to go ahead and cut them all down either. They’re beautiful. It’s part of the character of the cemetery.”
Local historian Rufus Ward said the magnolia trees in the historic section were planted in 1869 by the Ladies Monumental Association to unify separate sections of the cemetery. Ward said he still receives comments and questions about the magnolias from visitors to the cemetery.
“They are a page out of the history of Columbus and the cemetery (because) those were the trees that people wanted to plant to honor the people who are buried at Friendship Cemetery,” he said.
Because Friendship Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Bonner said there are a number of “do’s and don’ts” when it comes to making changes at the cemetery, like cutting down a tree for example.
“If those trees are going to cause even more damage than what we have, of course we would love to be able to remove those trees, but … that’s not necessarily the way it works,” she said. “We have to be sure there’s no viability to it. We have to make sure that we’re doing it the right way.”
While most trees are in good health, Bonner said some have shown signs of decline over time, and exposed roots have started to push headstones off balance.
“Some of the trees appear to be unhealthy or dead, but there is some liveliness of some of those trees,” she said. “Of course, we can’t cut those.”
If the request is approved, a team of arborists and engineers will use LiDAR and drones to survey the trees and provide data that will identify species, size, health and an evaluation of the area’s overall condition, according to the company’s proposal.
“They’ll use a drone and film it from above,” Wilder said. “Then, they’ll go out there in person, and they’ll count the trees (and) assess the health of the trees, the size. We’ll get a lot of good information.”
That information, she added, will then be added to an online database.
“You can click on that tree, and it will tell you all about it. So (it would be) educational too,” she said. “But our main purpose is to get some really good advice on the trees that are out there … particularly, the health (of the trees). Are there any we need to go ahead and have removed?”
While Bonner did not have a set date when the work will begin, she’s excited for the work to get started once the inventory is approved.
“It’s been a long time coming,” she said. “… I’ve been talking about these trees since 2019, and in the year 2026, we’ve finally made headway to be able to at least get the trees assessed and see what the city needs to do to make it better.”
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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