Celebrate Trees!

By Jeff Osborne, Forest Stewardship Program Associate- Trees have been formally celebrated since humans started keeping records. Arbor Day is recorded as being first celebrated in Nebraska in 1872. It is estimated that during this first celebration, spurred by prizes for the most properly planted trees, over 1 million trees were planted in the state. At the time, this equated to about five trees for every person living in the state. Now every US state and at least 34 countries celebrate “Arbor Day.” The day, or sometimes week, is celebrated at different times in different places, and celebrated in different ways.

              Pennsylvania, along with half of the rest of the country, celebrates Arbor Day on the last Friday in April. Many southern states celebrate Arbor Day earlier in the year, and some northern states celebrate in May; this facilitates the best opportunities for tree planting. Many communities and conservation organizations have tree planting events on or near Arbor Day. The Arbor Day Foundation has an event calendar where you can find events in your area.

In Pennsylvania, many schools also celebrate “earth week,” which contains Earth Day, April 22, and Arbor Day. EARTHDAY.ORG has information on Earth Day and an interactive map which shows events. You can also add an event for your organization to the Arbor Day or EARTHDAY.ORG events lists. There are several programs that provide free seedlings for school groups, including the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Seedlings for Schools, which has unfortunately already exhausted its supply for this year (but keep them in consideration for next year), and Neighborhood Forest. Neighborhood Forest will be taking reservations for seedlings here until March 15.

The Arbor Day Foundation also recognizes communities, electric utilities, higher education campuses, and healthcare facilities who support tree planting, care, and education on their care through their Tree City USA, Tree Line USA, Tree Campus Higher Education, and Tree Campus Healthcare programs. In Pennsylvania, 111 municipalities are recognized as Tree Cities. Almost 30% of the state’s population lives in a Tree City community. The requirements for a community to be recognized are having at least $2 per capita in annual expenditures on urban forestry, having a tree board or commission, having a tree ordinance, and celebrating Arbor Day with a public proclamation from the mayor or other municipal leadership. Pennsylvania also has 26 Tree Campuses, 21 for higher education, three for healthcare, and two for K-12 schools. There are also four Tree Line USA utilities.

Although, during this Arbor Day, you may not be able to break Antoine Moses’s world record by planting more than 23,060 seedlings in 24 hours, you can certainly take part in a local tradition celebrating trees. Or maybe even start your own community or family tradition that others will enjoy for decades.