I was scheduling posts for April when I looked at my paper calendar and saw April 27 was marked “Arbor Day.”
Arbor Day? That’s about trees, right? I thought.
This tree stands somewhere in Southern New Mexico.
I have a lot of photos of trees, I thought. I could do a post on Arbor day and share photos of trees, I thought.
These giant sequoias live in California’s Sequoia National Park.
According to the Arbor Day Foundation,
Arbor Day is an annual observance that celebrates the role of trees in our lives and promotes tree planting and care.The idea for Arbor Day in the United States originated in Nebraska City, Nebraska
In 1872, the State Board of Agriculture accepted a resolution by J. Sterling Morton “to set aside one day to plant trees, both forest and fruit.” The Board declared April 10 Arbor Day and offered prizesto the counties and individuals that properly planted the largest number of trees on that day.
These olive trees grow in Phoenix, AZ. The palm tree, it turns out, is not really a tree at all. According to Earth Connection, “Palm trees, of which more than 2,000 species exist, are grouped botanically with grasses, sedges, bamboo, grains, lilies, onions, and orchids.”
As an April 2017 Time article called “This Is Why Arbor Day Is a Thing” explains,
Nebraska was a largely treeless prairie region when, on April 10, 1872, it became the first state to celebrate Arbor Day by planting trees.
A century after the holiday was first celebrated, the Arbor Day Foundation was created to continue encouraging people to plant and love trees, and President Nixon proclaimed National Arbor Day. Now the last Friday in April is National Arbor Day, which is when most but not all states celebrate it.
Evergreens in the snow in the mountains of California.
The USA is not the only country that celebrates trees! According to Wikipedia,
Arbor Day (or Arbour; from the Latin arbor, meaning tree) is a holiday in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant trees. [1]Today, many countries observe such a holiday. Though usually observed in the spring, the date varies, depending on climate and suitable planting season.
(See the aforementioned article for a long list of countries that celebrate some version of Arbor Day, as well as a summary of what goes down at those celebrations.)
This tree in Northern New Mexico welcomes the night in the spring of 2017.
I hope you have enjoyed this brief history of Arbor Day and these photos of trees. I also hope you can get out there and celebrate Arbor Day by planting one or more trees.
The General Sherman is not only the largest living tree in the known world; it is the largest living creature of any species in the known world.