Trees central to life

Imagine a world without trees. Without their life-giving oxygen (and sequestered carbon), their soul-soothing beauty, their relieving shade.

Imagine giving up the thousands of everyday things they provide. Paper towels and bathroom tissue, books and boxes, furniture and doors, guitars and church pews, glue and jet fuel.

We wouldn’t want to live there.

Journalist Julius Sterling Morton knew it in 1854, when he moved from Detroit to the wide-open spaces of Nebraska, with nary a tree to shade a pioneer home or block the brutal winds. “We need to plant trees,” he thought. So by the time he became Secretary of Agriculture, he made it official.

On the first Arbor Day in Nebraska, April 10, 1872, one million trees were planted. We needed them; European colonists hadn’t helped matters when they instituted massive deforestation after they arrived to build their colonies.

As we celebrate on the last Friday in April, consider these Arbor Day facts:

Did you know we have a national tree? The oak. Established in 2004 by act of Congress after an informal, popular vote by the National Arbor Foundation. The redwood came in second.

The National Arbor Foundation isn’t just about crowning a winner. Formed in 1972, it distributes more than 10 million trees annually, and works with the U.S. Forest Service to replant forests — to the tune of roughly 20 million trees since 1990.

We exported Arbor Day long ago. Retired Connecticut minister Birdsey Grant Northrop traveled to Japan in 1895, convincing its government to institute an arbor day there. He followed suit in Canada, Australia, and Europe. Today, 36 nations celebrate it.

Arbor means tree in Latin. “Tree” may derive from Old English “treo,” proto-Germanic “treuwaz,” Sanscrit “dru,” and Greek “drys.”

Arbor Day was almost named Sylvan Day. Sylvan means wooded, or pastoral — too limited to forests. Arbor refers to all trees.

The date isn’t uniform. In 1970, President Nixon declared it the last Friday in April; Morton’s birthday was April 22. Yet as Arbor Day was originally a state-based observance, taking 20 years to spread nationwide, some states stick to their own. Hawaii’s is the first Friday in November, coincident with their planting season. Alaska’s is the first Monday in May. Canada’s Maple Leaf Day is in September.

Whenever and wherever, let’s hope we never take trees for granted, and keep them planted.

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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network who should never try to rhyme. Sholeh@cdapress.com.