A group of people taking advantage of the ongoing opportunity to adopt trees at Fontainebleau State Park this week got a special treat. They got to plant their own trees.

By the time the sunny morning was over last Wednesday, a couple dozen American Elms had been nestled into the soggy earth, named and tagged on sites throughout the new campground.

Kyle Borcher was the first to get his hands dirty. He called his tree "Adrian." When he returns to check on the elm's progress, it was joked, he'll shout, "Adrian...Adrian," a reference to a scene in the movie, "Rocky." Another planter quickly decided to name her tree "Stella," in honor of another classic shouting scene in "A Streetcar Named Desire."

Although not everybody gets to plant, everybody can adopt a tree at Fontainebleau, said Rita McMurray, interpretive ranger.

"Planting is not a regular part of the program," she said. "We happened to have some trees today. But anyone can pick any tree in the park, give it a name and we'll put a ribbon on it. It's then their responsibility to see that the ribbon stays. If they wait so long to visit it that the ribbon falls off, they've waited too long to see their tree. If the ribbon wears out, we'll give them another ribbon."

Tree adopters are urged to study and get to know their trees and to visit them regularly.

"They take measurements and write or verbalize a description of the tree," said McMurray. "They will then be encouraged to take a closer look and notice small details like color and texture of the bark, and color, shape and size of leaves.

"If the adoptive parent comes back to visit the tree, they can loosen the tie or replace it with a longer ribbon. If no visits have taken place in the time it takes for the ribbon to get so tight that it breaks, the adoption will break also. 'Parental' rights can be regained by placing a new ribbon on the tree."

The tree adoption program is free of charge.

It is hoped it will encourage people to form close bonds with the park through its trees.

"Today, we're going to give you a reason to come back," McMurray told the group Wednesday.

While ancient live oaks and other not-young trees, mostly pines, still tower on the public expanse, 80 percent of the trees in the park were lost to Hurricane Katrina, said Richard Scott, interpretive ranger.

"These elms are replacing trees that were blown down and died," he said. "A lot were also stressed by Katrina and the drought right afterward. So it was wind plus stress plus drought that caused them to be lost. We've planted thousands and thousands of trees in the last couple of months."

Scott said a group of volunteers plans to plant 25,000 more trees in the park next week. In the mean time, the Fontainebleau tree population is increasing elm by elm.

Scott wrote names like "Tall Bob," "Melinda," "Rosaria" and "West Point" on ribbons, then passed them to the planters who then marked their trees.

The tree adopters were eagerly walking from site to site, planting and naming trees in turn.

"I think this connects people with nature," said A. J. Maggiore. "I think there's kind of a disconnect these days, so I like all this."

Troy Sadler smiled in the dappled sunlight as he waited for his turn.

"I love the trees," he said.

For additional information about adopting a tree at Fontainebleau State Park, call the interpretive ranger station at 624-4442.