What is National Arbor Day you ask - well Arbor Day is a nationally-celebrated observance that encourages tree planting and care. Founded by J. Sterling Morton in 1872, it's celebrated on the last Friday in April.
Trees have more benefits than most people imagine. Let's take the young dogwood I have in my front yard. It was planted for looks by the people who owned the property before us. They had no idea what good it would do for us.
- This year my 6 inch diameter, flowering dogwood tree will reduce atmospheric carbon by102 pounds. Considering a mid size sedan that drives 12,000 miles in a year emits 11,000 lbs of CO2, we can use all the help we can get.
- My dogwood will intercept 367 gallons of stormwater runoff this year. Stormwater is a huge source of run off pollution containing oil, gasoline, salt, trash, etc and sends it into our lakes and streams. My dogwood will collect a lot of that!
- My dogwood will conserve 21 Kilowatt / hours of electricity for cooling. Just by being well placed, it shades the eastern side of my house and allows cooling to occur naturally.
The Arbor Day Foundation has all kinds of resources for children through adults about trees and protecting our planet. I donated $10 last month and received 10 seedling trees to plant around my yard (you can also have 10 trees planted in a forest). The kids and I will be planting them this weekend in celebration.
Other ways to celebrate are to learn more about trees in your area, have a trivia contest, go on a hike and identify trees along the path. Encourage the education about trees to others and we will be able to keep our world healthier for a longer period of time.
He who plants a tree
Plants a hope.
~Lucy Larcom, "Plant a Tree"
I thought about blogging about National Arbor Tree. I still remember memorizing in elementary school, "I think that I shall never see, A poem as lovely as a tree..."
ReplyDeleteYou have boys, right? Tree and boys go together like milk and cookies!