The beauty of Hall County's historic Champion Trees can soon be yours.

Well, make that in about a year, when the saplings are ready to be planted in your front yard.

Thanks to members of the Environmental Club at Chestatee High School and other local organizations, seeds from a few trees along historic Green Street in Gainesville have been planted, with the hopes of keeping the trees' legacy growing and giving local residents the chance to enjoy their beauty.

"What better trees to put in that environment than those that are used to growing there?" said Rick Foote, the Natural Resources Coordinator for Hall County Resource Recovery. "They are already really well adapted."

The Tree Project is a joint venture of the Hall County schools, Keep Hall Beautiful, the Georgia Forestry Commission, Hall County Resource Recovery Division and the city of Gainesville.

Champion trees are those that are honored as the county's largest known varieties. Seeds that were gathered and planted this past Tuesday were white oak, redbud, Northern red oak, chestnut oak, dogwood and some crape myrtles.

Doug Andrews, chief forest ranger at the Banks-Hall County Unit for the Georgia Forestry Commission, also brought pin oak seeds that were not from a champion tree.

"The pin oak are not from a champion tree but these are absolutely beautiful specimens," Andrews said. "A portion of the white oaks came from Green Street, a portion of the northern reds came from Green Street. ... We have crape myrtles but these will not be planted until spring."

The seeds were planted in pots on Tuesday and will be kept in the greenhouse at Chestatee High or in an outdoor classroom for germination.

Lauren Floyd, a founding member of the Environmental Club at Chestatee, said the tree program is important to the community.

"It's useful because you are planting trees that are hard to find in the area," she said.

Some seedlings will be offered for sale to the pubic around November 2010, Andrews said.

"We are going to attempt to bring in some seedlings from our nursery (at) the Georgia Forestry Commission. They are bare root seedlings and they are going to bottom out and be able to sell those in the fall," Andrews said. "We are going to take all the oak acorns and once they are watered we are going to put them outside so they will go through the natural stratification process ... they will stay dormant with exception of the root shoot until spring. Once it starts to warm up you will actually see the tree start to form."

Lisa Taylor and Nick Scheman are co-sponsors of the Environmental Club that will be growing the trees. Both teachers are excited about the opportunity for their students to be involved with historic and champion tree propagation.

"It works into our curriculum nicely," Scheman said.