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Arbor Day 2010, April 30th: History, Kids Activities

by NowPublic Staff | April 30, 2010 at 07:48 am

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National Arbor Day, April 30th 2010: Plant A Tree.

Arbor Day Background/History

Arbor Day is a day for people celebrate and acknowledge the importance of trees. On Arbor Day people are encouraged to plant and care of trees. Arbor Day dates back to 1872. On January 4th of that year Sterling J. Morton moved from Detroit to Nebraska and observed that there were no trees in the state prompting Morton and other settlers to start planting trees.

At a Nebraska State Board of Agriculture meeting on January 4, 1872, he proposed a holiday to plant trees on April 10, 1872. This was known as "Arbor Day" and prizes were awarded to the counties and individuals who planted the most trees on the day. A total of about one million trees were planted in Nebraska on the first Arbor Day. In 1874, Governor Robert W Furnas officially proclaimed that Arbor Day would be observed on April 10, 1884. In 1885, it became a legal holiday and was moved to April 22, which was Morton's birthday

Arbor Day Kids Activities

Arbor Day can be an opportunity for group tree planting: families, communities, church groups, and schools across the USA participate in Arbor Day activities.

Your Arbor Day can be a few neighbors gathering to plant trees in a park behind your homes or at a nearby school. It can be a week-long regional festival with activities for thousands of kids and adults. Arbor Day can be a single class project or an event for the whole school, an inner city neighborhood planting trees in a vacant lot, or a huge citywide or statewide celebration.

The Arbor Day Foundation has a good celebration guide (pdf) available for download.

States That Observe Arbor Day On April 30th.

Though National Arbor Day is April 30th, various states observe Arbor Day on different dates, setting the date for Arbor Day based on the ideal time to commence the tree planting season

Arizona
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Minnesota
Montana
Nebraska
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Dakota
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Wisconsin

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at 03:29 on June 22nd, 2010

Arbor Day can be an opportunity for group tree planting: families, communities, church groups, and schools across the USA participate in Arbor Day activities.