Today is Arbor Day; Go Plant a Tree

Today is National Arbor Day in the United States. If it snuck up on you again this year, don't let it worry you. Keeping track of Arbor Day can be a little tricky.

Arbor Day is celebrated in all 50 American states and the District of Columbia, but not always on the same day. Since the whole purpose of Arbor Day is to give people time to plant trees, which the Arbor Day Foundation calls "an act of optimism and kindness, a labor of love, and a commitment to stewardship," the states tend to pick a day that works best with the local growing season.

The first Arbor Day was celebrated in 1872 by a bunch of Nebraska farmers who were living in sod huts on the open prairies and trying to make a living. A newspaperman named J. Sterling Morton came up with the idea of planting trees to provide fuel, building materials, erosion control, windbreaks, and shade from the prairie sun. On that first Arbor Day, those Nebraska farmers got to work and planted over a million trees.

Arbor Day has been going strong ever since, although it sometimes gets shouldered aside by its more visible cousin, Earth Day. But every year, all across the United States and in countries worldwide, people pick up shovels and plant trees.

I guess J. Sterling Morton got it right when he said: "Each generation takes the earth as trustees. We ought to bequeath to posterity as many forests and orchards as we have exhausted and consumed."

Amen.

• About Arbor Day