Arbor Day
The first US celebration of Arbor Day was in Nebraska in 1872. School children often observe the day by planting trees. Most states celebrate the holiday on the last Friday in April, although some states have selected different dates due to climate considerations. For example, Arbor Day is celebrated in January in Florida and many other Southern states set the date in February or March. Check the Arbor Day Foundation calendar to see when the holiday is celebrated in your state.
Tree Photos
Over 2,300 photographs of trees from the ClipPix ETC website.
Tree Illustrations
Over 1,800 illustrations of trees from the ClipArt ETC website.
The Story of the Old Man Who Made Withered Trees To Flower
A childless couple love their dog very dearly, and the dog finds gold coins buried under their tree. The old man is grateful and loves his dog even more. The man has a very jealous and hateful neighbor, who tries to copy his neighbor’s luck by borrowing the dog and making him dig. The hateful man finds only garbage, and kills the dog in rage. The good man asks for the tree in remembrance of his dog, and the tree’s wood is made into a mortar that produces unending food.
The Old Apple-Tree by Paul Laurence Dunbar
There’s a memory keeps a–runnin’
Through my weary head to–night,
An’ I see a picture dancin’
In the fire–flames’ ruddy light;
‘Tis the picture of an orchard
Wrapped in autumn’s purple haze….
Foreign Lands by Robert Louis Stevenson
A child climbs into a cherry tree and imagines seeing other places.
A Christmas Tree by Charles Dickens
The author shares some of his Christmas experiences and memories regarding the meaning of the Christmas tree.
A Letter from President Theodore Roosevelt, April 15, 1907
To the School Children of the United States:
Arbor Day (which means simply “Tree Day”) is now observed in every State in our Union—and mainly in the schools. At various times from January to December, but chiefly in this month of April, you give a day or part of a day to special exercises and perhaps to actual tree planting, in recognition of the importance of trees to us as a Nation, and of what they yield in adornment, comfort, and useful products to the communities in which you live.
It is well that you should celebrate your Arbor Day thoughtfully, for within your lifetime the Nation’s need of trees will become serious. We of an elder generation can get along with what we have, though with growing hardship; but in your full manhood and womanhood you will want what nature once so bountifully supplied and man so thoughtlessly destroyed; and because of that want you will reproach us, not for what we have used, but for what we have wasted.
For the Nation as for the man or woman and the boy or girl, the road to success is the right use of what we have and the improvement of present opportunity. If you neglect to prepare yourselves now for the duties and responsibilities which will fall upon you later, if you do not learn the things which you will need to know when your school days are over, you will suffer the consequences. So any nation which in its youth lives only for the day, reaps without sowing, and consumes without husbanding, must expect the penalty of the prodigal, whose labor could with difficulty find him the bare means of life.
A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as hopeless; forests which are so used that they cannot renew themselves will soon vanish, and with them all their benefits. A true forest is not merely a storehouse full of wood, but, as it were, a factory of wood, and at the same time a reservoir of water. When you help to preserve our forests or to plant new ones you are acting the part of good citizens. The value of forestry deserves, therefore, to be taught in the schools, which aim to make good citizens of you. If your Arbor Day exercises help you to realize what benefits each one of you receives from the forests, and how by your assistance these benefits may continue, they will serve a good end.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.