The day of the trees

Yesterday was Arbor Day. The day devoted to planting and caring for trees and a perfect day to remember how important and wonderful they are. I was remiss in posting yesterday, and I wish I could say I was out planting a tree, but I don't have a piece of land on which to do so. So I admired them, instead. (And the best I can do is tell you that today I planted tomatoes).

Let's reflect on Arbor Day for a moment. Our beloved Julius Sterling Morton (along with Robert Furnas) founded this glorious day. Interestingly, Arbor day sprung from the plains of Nebraska which were distinctly lacking trees in the late 1800s. The new pioneers (J. Sterling Morton in particular) saw the importance of bringing trees to this flat, hot and windy land. Morton proposed a tree-planting holiday, and it was officially proclaimed on April 8, 1874.


On the first Arbor Day, "prizes were offered to counties and individuals for planting properly the largest number of trees...It was estimated that more than one million trees were planted in Nebraska on the first Arbor Day."

Now, over 100 years later (after many forests and trees have been chopped down) the Nature Conservancy has launched a Plant a Billion Trees campaign, to restore 2.5 million acres of land (and plant 1,000,000,000 trees) in the next 7 years. You can help! I can help! It's only $1 a tree (I think the minimum is 10 trees). So you give a little money, help save the world. And think of the trees! Always think of the trees. If nothing else, check out their cool site where you can watch the little trees sprout and learn about trees that you didn't even know existed! Like the Ice Cream Bean Tree.


Arbor Day is not like other holidays. Each of those reposes on the past, while Arbor Day proposes for the future.

– Julius Sterling Morton