Arbor Day

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D r o b a r

Planting Trees Today for a Greener Tomorrow

TREES

I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in Summer wear A nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree.

Joyce Kilmer american poet

Unlike many celebrations and holidays that observe historical events, Arbor Day looks to the future with hope. True to its “tree day” Latin translation, Arbor Day celebrates the planting, nurturing and preservation of trees. Arbor Day is a time to honor, admire and respect trees for their contributions to the well-being of living things and the good of the Earth. A day of awareness…planting seeds and trees for a brighter future… focusing on a greener planet.

The Father of Arbor Day

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hirteen years before Nebraska gained its statehood, journalist J. Sterling Morton and his wife Caroline moved to Nebraska City in 1854. Like other pioneers who moved into the Nebraska Territory, they deeply felt the lack of trees – trees that provided windbreaks and shade, kept the soil in place and were used for fuel and building materials. After the Mortons purchased 160 acres of primarily flat, desolate land in 1855, they planted an abundant variety of shrubs and trees, including fruit-bearing trees.

Sterling Morton used his knowledge and enthusiasm about trees in his job as editor of “Nebraska City News,” the state’s first newspaper.

His focus on the ecological importance of trees and the area’s lack of forestation resonated with the newspaper’s readers. Respected as an agriculturalist, Morton advocated strongly for people and civic groups to plant trees, and he instructed them on modern techniques of farming and forestry. He became U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in President Grover Cleveland’s administration and in 1872 proposed a tree planting holiday – Arbor Day – to encourage Nebraskans to plant trees in their communities. That year, the first Arbor Day celebration was held on April 10, and Nebraskans planted an estimated 1 million trees.

This first Arbor Day celebration unleashed a chain of events that continues to impact our nation and world.

In 1874, Nebraska Governor Robert W. Furnas officially proclaimed Arbor Day. n

Each generation takes the earth as trustees. We ought to bequeath to posterity as many forests and orchards as we have exhausted and consumed.

J. Sterling Morton in Washington, D.C. Courtesy of The Morton Arboretum

– J. Sterling Morton

In 1882, learning about the importance of trees became prominent in schoolrooms across the country, and schoolchildren became involved in the tree planting tradition. n In 1885, Arbor Day became a legal holiday in Nebraska, and its permanent annual observance was set for April 22 in recognition of Morton’s birthday and timed with ideal planting conditions. n In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt issued the Arbor Day Proclamation to the School Children of the United States: “It is well that you should celebrate your Arbor Day thoughtfully, for within your lifetimes the Nation’s need of trees will become serious. We of an older generation can get along with what we have, though with growing hardship; but in your full manhood and womanhood you will want what nature once so bountifully supplied and man so thoughtlessly destroyed.” n By 1920, Arbor Day legislation had been passed in more than 45 states and territories. n In 1970, President Richard Nixon proclaimed a nationwide Arbor Day to “conduct observances and programs designed to inform the public of the necessity and value of this elemental natural resource.” n Reflecting global concern about trees and forests, initiatives are underway to sustain forests, identify ways to restore trees and productivity of degraded and deforested lands, support the supply and procurement of legal and sustainable forest products, and develop policy recommendations for the governance of the world’s forest resources. n

Arbor Day is now widely celebrated in the United States on the last Friday in April, although many states have chosen other dates – Texas celebrates the first Friday in November – based on their best tree planting weather. From Australia to Iceland, India to Israel, and South Africa to Canada, more than 32 commonwealths and countries around the world also participate in annual tree planting as part of their Arbor Day activities.

Trees Across America Washington Western Hemlock Montana Ponderosa Pine North Dakota American Elm

Oregon Douglas Fir Idaho Western White Pine

South Dakota Black Hills Spruce

Wyoming Plains Cottonwood Nevada Single-leaf Pinyon, Great Basin Bristlecone

Utah Quaking Aspen

Nebraska Eastern Cottonwood

Colorado Colorado Blue Spruce

California Coast Redwood, Giant Sequoia

Kansas Eastern Cottonwood

Oklahom Eastern R

Arizona Blue Palo Verde New Mexico Piñon Pine

How Trees Tie to Life’s Necessities n

Trees clean our air

n Trees absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide that drives climate change n

Trees aid in erosion control

n Trees protect our drinking water n

Trees provide wildlife habitat

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Trees serve as windbreaks

n Trees provide shade from the sun n Trees are a source of fuel and building materials n

Trees offer natural beauty

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Trees create healthy communities

Texas Pecan

Hawaii Candlenut Tree

Alaska Sitka Spruce

New Hampshire American White Birch Minnesota Red Pine

Wisconsin Sugar Maple

Iowa Bur Oak

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ma Redbud

New York Sugar Maple

Michigan Eastern White Pine

Illinois Indiana White Oak Tulip Tree

Pennsylvania Eastern Hemlock

Ohio Ohio Buckeye

West Virginia Sugar Maple Virginia Flowering Kentucky Dogwood Tulip Tree

Missouri Flowering Dogwood

Tennessee Tulip Tree Arkansas Loblolly Pine

North Carolina Pine South Carolina Sabal Palm

Alabama Mississippi Longleaf Pine Southern Magnolia

Georgia Southern Live Oak

Louisiana Bald Cypress Florida Sabal Palm

Maine Eastern White Pine

Vermont Sugar Maple Massachusetts American Elm

Rhode Island Red Maple Connecticut White Oak New Jersey Northern Red Oak Delaware American Holly Maryland White Oak

A Few Famous American Trees The Charter Oak. The trunk of a white oak tree in Hartford, Connecticut is believed to have been the hiding spot of a vanished document sought by England’s King James II to revoke the royal charter issued to Connecticut in 1662.

The Liberty Tree. The Sons of Liberty congregated in 1765 under the mighty branches of a century-old elm tree in Boston, Massachusetts to protest the unpopular Stamp Act. This tree became a powerful patriotic symbol and was the site of many gatherings over the next decade.

The Emancipation Tree. In 1861, Mary Smith Peake taught reading and writing underneath the massive canopy of a southern live oak tree in Hampton, Virginia to children whose parents had escaped enslavement to Union-held Fort Monroe. In 1863, African Americans congregated underneath that same tree to listen to the first reading of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Tree is now on the grounds of Hampton University.

The General Sherman Tree. Named for Civil War General William Sherman, this magnificent sequoia in California’s Sequoia National Park is believed to be between 2,300 and 2,700 years old. It stands more than 274 feet tall and has a 102.6-foot circumference at its base, equal to the wood supply needed to build 120 average-size homes.

Cherry Trees numbering 3,000 were gifted to the United States by Japan in 1912 as a symbol of the growing friendship between the two countries. A dozen varieties of cherry trees line the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., and their blossoms mark the annual rite of spring.

The Survivor Tree. Ground Zero recovery workers discovered a crushed and scorched yet living Callery pear tree weeks after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Its eight-foot stump, a lone symbol of survival and resilience amid the World Trade Center rubble, was transplanted, nursed back to health and replanted at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York City.

Arbor Day is not like other holidays.

Each of those reposes on the past, while Arbor Day proposes for the future.

– J. Sterling Morton

American Chestnut in Bloom (Castanea dentata)

The American Chestnut a story of restoration

Often cited as one of the worst modern-age ecological disasters, ~4 billion American chestnut trees – one in four in America’s eastern forests – died after Cryphonectria parasitica, the fungal chestnut blight pathogen, spread from East Asia to the United States through infected chestnut plants. While the trees are still common in forests, their fast-growing sprouts have little-to-no resistance to chestnut blight and continue to die. In the 1970s, American Chestnut Foundation founder Dr. Charles Burnham suggested the backcrossing plant breeding technique to meld the best characteristics of the American chestnut with the Asiatic species, which has acquired the genetic material that confers blight resistance. This process encompasses six controlled pollination crossings, and each resulting generation can take up to six years to evaluate for blight resistance. The foundation’s goal is to return the American chestnut through forestation. Silvicultural trials are underway to learn how the chestnut tree grows under various forest management scenarios, and reintroduction trials are using plantings to establish stock type, planting density and the optimum timing for planting.

Native Range Map of the American Chesnut From the eastern woodlands spanning from Florida to Maine, to the Piedmont plateau region extending from the Carolinas to the Ohio Valley, the American chestnut dynasty swept across 200 million acres until succumbing to lethal fungus infestation.

Endangered Species Likely to become extinct #5 Maple-Leaf Oak (Quercus acerifolia): grows on steep, rocky terrains in four Arkansas counties; six populations of a few hundred each remain #4 Four-Petal Pawpaw (Asimina tetramera): ~500 are growing in Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Palm Beach County, Florida, and others are scattered outside the park #3 Boynton’s Sand Post Oak (Quercus boyntonii): considered extinct until a population was discovered in St. Clair County, Alabama #2 Florida Yew (Taxus floridana): grows on bluffs and ravines along the Apalachicola River in Florida #1 Florida Torreya (Torreya taxifolia): also growing along the Apalachicola River in Florida, numbers have declined more than 98% over three decades; extinction is inevitable

Trees that grow in the wild and at risk of extinction*

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Fraser fir

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Port Orford cedar

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Redwood

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Giant sequoia

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Longleaf pine

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Florida willow

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Santa Rosa Island pine

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Virginia round-leafed birch

*International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List

Common Invasive Species in North America Show a tendency to spread out of control

Royal Paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa), also known as princess tree

Mimosa (Albizia julibrissin), also known as silk tree

Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), also known as Robinia

Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altimissa), also known as Chinese sumac

Chinese Tallow tree (Triadica sebifera), also known as popcorn tree Chinaberry tree (Melia azedarach), also known as umbrella tree White poplar (Populus alba), also known as silver poplar

Chinese Tallow in Fall

KNOCK ON WOOD From Trees to Lumber

The United States is the world’s largest producer of soft and hardwood lumber, softwood plywood and composite panels.

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1.6 million people – 1.2% of the U.S. workforce – are employed in the forest products industry.

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The largest-valued agricultural crop in the United States is timber.

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Lumber manufacturers use ~98% of every harvested tree.

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Forest products are biodegradable and recyclable.

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BY THE NUMBERS 60,000

tree species in the world n 3.04 trillion trees globally n 422 trees for every person on Earth n 10 billion trees lost annually to infrastructure and agriculture n 70 million trees in the United States in 1920s n 1920s marked widespread deforestation in the U.S. for construction and recreation n 2/3 of American forests were logged without replacement in the 1920s n 400% increase in global use of trees over last 100 years n 4 U.S. states share the Sugar Maple as their state tree n

B Y T H E FA C T S 50% of the world’s forests are in the five biggest countries based on land area: United States, Canada, Brazil, Russia and China.

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The United States has 228 billion trees. By contrast, Russia has 642 billion trees, Canada 318 billion, Brazil 302 billion and China 140 billion.

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Finland, Sweden, French Guiana, Equatorial Guinea, Bolivia and Taiwan have the greatest tree density.

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Greenland, United Arab Emirates and Qatar have almost no tree cover.

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422 is the average trees per person in the world. French Guiana leads

the way with 20,226 per person, followed by Guyana at 14,692 per

person, Canada at 8,953 per person and Gabon at 8,131 per person.

The United States has 716 trees per person, making it one of the lowest in the world.

The largest organism in the world based on mass is the aspen tree, whose clone colonies can grow up to 5 miles long.

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“God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.”

– John Muir

Tree Talk n

Trees are Earth’s longest-living organisms.

A tree’s rings reveal both its age, the occurrence of natural disasters and the impact of climate change.

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Strategically planted trees can lower your energy bill by shading your home in the summer and serving as a windbreak in the winter.

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Trees release phenolics to ward off insect attacks.

Trees reduce noise through attenuation by absorbing and deflecting sound waves.

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A mature tree can absorb 48+ pounds of carbon dioxide annually, store the carbon and release oxygen back into the air.

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Trees grow from the top, so if you hang a birdhouse on a branch, it won’t move higher as the tree grows.

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Growth takes place at different parts of a tree throughout the year: foliage growth in the spring, trunk growth in the summer and root growth in the fall and winter.

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TR(eat our)E(xisting)E(cosystem)S(acredly) There is an abundance of environmental and health reasons to care about trees and the benefits they offer the world. Plant a tree so the next generation can get air for free. Trees are green gold. They’re the lungs of the world.

There is no life without green. If you plant a tree, you plant a life. So, give a hoot for the root. When we heal the Earth, we heal ourselves.

The Arbor Day Foundation is providing the framework for 3,400 communities to manage, expand and care for their urban tree canopy through its Tree City USA program. These communities, home to 143+ million Americans, have committed to meeting four core standards of sound urban forestry management: maintaining a tree department or board, spending at least $2 per capita on urban forestry, having a community tree ordinance and celebrating Arbor Day.

Green nation, clean nation!

As we seek to create change through forestation and dedicated tree planting, The Mid-Continent Companies is planting a tree in historic Glenwood Cemetery in Houston to celebrate Arbor Day and in tribute to our company’s founder, William Henry Van Pelt III. We encourage you to join us in observing Arbor Day as a meaningful opportunity to remember someone you love and embrace trees today for a greener tomorrow.

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