National Arbor Day takes place every year on the last Friday in April. National Arbor Day is known as the tree planters’ holiday and was first celebrated more than 140 years ago back in 1872. The tradition began in Nebraska, which back in the 1800s was a plain largely entirely devoid of trees, with the idea being founded by J Sterling Morton.
Arbor is the Latin word for tree. National Arbor Day is a day that is recognized as a day to plant and to dedicate a tree in order to help the environment and nature. Millions of trees get planted on National Arbor Day, with the great majority of those trees being provided by the Arbor Day Foundation. It is generally believed that every year on Arbor Day around 18 million new trees are planted.
There are a number of ways in which people can get involved and celebrate National Arbor Day. You could use a public area to organize a beautification project or come up with another way to get people involved, perhaps by asking a service or civic group to promote a paper drive in order to save a tree by gathering paper to be recycled.
Another good idea might be to conduct a tree search by asking people to find historic, large or unusual trees in their community and then publish a map highlighting the winners, or perhaps even just organize a walk around them.
Jon Huser
