WBRZ - Baton Rouge

HATTIESBURG,MS - The federal government and a nonprofit organization are working to get private landowners to help restore stands of oaks, cypress and other hardwoods ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

The United States Department of Agriculture says Hurricane Katrina killed or severely damaged an estimated 320 million trees in less than 24 hours when it swept through Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama.

For the past three years, its Natural Resources Conservation Service and Restore the Earth Foundation Inc., have helped reforest about 30,000 acres of private land with 1.5 million hardwood seedlings in Mississippi's lower six counties and five Louisiana parishes.

Reports say that the NRCS is now offering landowners in Mississippi's Pine Belt that same opportunity.