Plant a Tree for Arbor Day
Plant a Tree for Arbor Day
There’s nothing quite like the tree. From the classic oak tree in your local neighborhood to the giant redwoods that stand proud and tall in California, trees are just as diverse as they are important in nature. How else would we get most of our fresh oxygen that we need to live? On average, one tree produces almost 260 pounds of air after taking in our carbon dioxide. It’s not an overstatement to say we owe most of our lives to these leafy green beautifies of nature. You might even feel like celebrating the existence of trees. Lucky for you, there’s a holiday for that.
Introducing Arbor Day. National Arbor Day is always on the last Friday of every April and people celebrate it by planting a tree, be it elms, oaks, pines, or whatever type they can find. But what does the word ‘arbor’ mean, and how is it anyway related to a tree? Let’s take a look.
What is Arbor Day?
Basically, Arbor Day is all about the trees. The very word ‘Arbor’ is a Latin word for tree.
It’s a holiday that celebrates the very nature that supports us, and it’s an opportunity for us to return that support. The purpose is to encourage people to plant a tree, and many communities use the day as a fun way to organize tree planting or litter-collecting events. Often, people plant a tree not just for the sake of nature, but also in honor of a loved one or a precious memory. As wholesome and beneficial as the event is, the holiday also has just as rich of a history.
History of Arbor Day
If you’re a passionate tree lover, you might resonate with the founder of Arbor Day. His name was Julius Sterling Morton, and he was an avid planter of many kinds of trees. He was also a newspaper editor and former US secretary of agriculture who first settled with his family on 160 treeless acres. He called his homestead the Morton “ranche” and planted thousands of trees, including an apple orchard. Morton loved to take every chance he could get to encourage others to plant trees and crops.
To get his idea for Arbor Day off the ground, he turned in a resolution to Nebraska’s State Board of Agriculture to set aside one day for planting trees. It passed with flying colors.
The very first Arbor Day took place almost 150 years ago at the height of the Industrial Revolution on April 10, 1872 in Nebraska City, Nebraska. On that day, nearly 1 million trees were planted. Morton said, “If I had the power, I would compel every man in the State who had a home of his own to plant out and cultivate fruit trees.”
After several years, Arbor Day finally became a legal holiday in 1885. The date was switched to April 22 to celebrate Morton’s birthday, and Nebraska City citizens celebrated in the thousands. A big party was held that day, featuring a parade with over 1,000 school children.
Soon, Arbor Day took off and expanded far beyond Nebraska. In just 20 years, virtually every state in the US was celebrating Arbor Day except Delaware, which later joined. Arbor Day eventually went international, as other countries like Australia, Brazil, and Canada engaged in it.
The idea of planting trees became symbolic, and Morton was especially pleased that schools that celebrated the holiday dedicated the trees to special people. It became so much of an incredibly meaningful event to communities and individuals alike that in 1972, President Nixon declared Arbor Day a national holiday to be celebrated on the last Friday of every April. As the founder of the Environmental Protection Agency, he wrote his declaration in a proclamation.
“The planting of trees is an action that yields a long-range benefit on generations to come,” he said. “Arbor Day uniquely symbolizes the truth that the earth belongs to every generation, not just ours.”
Tree Benefits and Fun Facts
With deforestation rates at 10 million hectares per year between 2015 and 2020, it’s more important now than ever to take care of our trees and recognize the benefits that they have. Here are some fast facts that you can learn about:
- The Arbor Day Foundation is one of the biggest nonprofit conservation organizations created to plant trees in the entire world. More than 10 million trees are planted and distributed every year.
- The Foundation has a Rainforest Rescue program which has helped preserve more than 48,000 acres of rainforest land.
- There are almost 60,000 documented tree species across the world. The most common tree species is usually the American Basswood.