Happy Arbor Day!!!

I know we spend a lot of time on here talking about animals, but let's not forget the trees too! Did you know that Arbor Day is even older than Earth Day? The first Earth Day celebration took place in 1970, but the first Arbor Day was celebrated on April 10th, 1872 in Nebraska. The holiday was the brainchild of Julius Sterling Morton (1832-1902), a Nebraska journalist and politician originally from Michigan. Throughout his career, he worked to improve agricultural techniques and served as Secretary of Agriculture under Grover Cleavland. When he moved to Nebraska, Morton thought that the landscape would benefit from the planting of a few trees, and so set about planting orchards, shade trees and windbreaks. His neighbors thought this was a good idea too, and so the practice started to catch on. When Morton became a member on the board of Nebraska's board of agriculture, he proposed a special day be set aside for the promotion of tree planting and increasing awareness of the importance of trees. On Nebraska's first Arbor day, over a million trees were planted. A second Arbor Day didn't take place until 1884, but was made a legal holiday in the state in 1885, and the date changed to April 22nd to coincide with Morton's birthday.
Needless to say, the rest of the country thought that Morton's idea was pretty groovy and soon Kansas, Tenessee, and Ohio were celebrating arbor days as well. Today, all 50 states celebrate an arbor day, although the dates vary in keeping with the local climate. And now, arbor day is celebrated in other countries as well, including Australia, Japan and Israel. So hug a tree today!