Magnolias Giveaway

Rick Baumann, founder of Trees for Tomorrow, holds some of the 500 magnolia trees the group gave away recently.

There will soon be 500 new magnolia trees planted on the South Strand thanks to a local nonprofit group called Trees for Tomorrow. The group held a tree giveaway Dec. 3 through 12 at Murrells Inlet Seafood to celebrate reaching its goal of planting 15,000 trees in its first five years. Group founder Rick Baumann, who owns Murrells Inlet Seafood, said the giveaway was a holiday gift to the community.

In addition to the tree giveaway, Murrells Inlet Seafood will donate all profits from its daily soup bar to Trees For Tomorrow throughout the month of December. These funds will be used to order more trees for giveaways later in the winter. Baumann said the group always appreciates donations from the public. He said with its newly acquired tax-exempt status, donations to Trees For Tomorrow will now be tax deductible.

Trees for Tomorrow is dedicated to planting and providing indigenous trees like the magnolia because there are more high-density developments encroaching on their natural habitat, he said. “The biggest problem in my view is that we have higher density building plans now than we did 20-30 years ago,” Baumann said. “Nobody would think of building on a 60-foot lot 20-30 years ago, but now it’s common place.” He said Trees for Tomorrow started with live oaks, eastern red cedars, dog woods and red buds, but has recently expanded to magnolias and other smaller trees.

“We are looking at bringing shumard oaks here for planting early this spring or late winter,” Baumann said, “along with some of the more traditional trees that will fit in with the higher density landscapes.” He explained that the chumard oak is a species that is smaller than the live oak and has very brilliant fall colors. “I think the home owners will enjoy those,” he said.

Murrells Inlet Seafood is located at 4886 South U.S. Highway 17 Business in Murrells Inlet. For more information call 843-651-9309.