FFC: Today is National Arbor Day

Today is National Arbor Day - so of course it is going on Friday's Featured Cause!  (if you want a cause featured please use the button on the side of this page).

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.

There are other benefits too, like air quality and property value.  All from a young dogwood.  Imagine what larger trees do for us.  (if you want to know go to the arbor day calculator and plug in your location, tree, and its size.  That is what I did)

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"

FFC: Just because Earth Day was yesterday doesn't mean we should stop saving it.

Across America Earth Day was celebrated by thousands yesterday.  It is great that we have a day to make us step back and look at what we are doing to our earth.

This week, for Friday's Featured Cause, I want to talk about your Earth Day resloutions.  Last week, I listed 10 easy things you can do to help save our planet.  Have you done any of them?  If not, do you plan on it?  Are you willing to join me and make resloutions for change?

Just because Earth Day is over, doesn't mean we should stop trying to help heal it. 

The first step is to take a look at your garbage.  If you make more than one bag of trash a week (that's all we use for a family of 5) then you have too much trash. Garbage goes to the dump where it hids in trash bags for weeks before it starts to break down.  Then it begins the breakdown process.
Oganic material only takes 6 months to breakdown, aluminum cans take 500 years.  Cotton, rags and paper only take 8 months, plastic takes 500 years.
Make a resolution to recycle more and throw out less.  All the cardboard cereal boxes, school papers, can go right in your bin along with your newspaper.  Don't forget all your canned and glass goods too.

The second step is to conserve energy.  Did you know that over half the energy produced in the US comes from burning coal?  Changing a few of your daily habits could change the world. 
Turn your thermostat down 2 degrees in the winter and up 2 in the summer.  You won't notice the difference, but the envoirnment will.
Unplug appliances when you are not using them.  We often forget that most of our appliances continue to run even after we turn them off.  Use the off switch on your power cord behind the television to turn off your DVD, Wii, TV, and stereo.  How many clocks do you need in the living room anyway?

Two simple steps to saving energy.  What are you going to do?

We didn't inherit the earth from our parents, we borrowed it from our children.