While similar, Arbor and Earth days are different
Q: Are Earth Day and Arbor Day the same thing? How are they celebrated in our area?
A: Earth Day and Arbor Day are two closely related, but separate events. The greatest difference is that Earth Day begins with an "E" and Arbor Day begins with an "A." That primary distinction aside, let's look at them a bit closer. We'll start with the senior event, Arbor Day.
Arbor Day was the idea of J. Sterling Morton. If that name rings a bell, it's because his son, Joy Morton, was Mr. Salt, of Morton Salt fame. Joy Morton founded the Morton Arboretum in Lisle in 1922.
J. Sterling Morton was a prominent government official, being the Secretary of Agriculture under President Grover Cleveland. He founded Arbor Day in 1872. Morton's passion for trees extended to a distaste for cutting down healthy trees for Christmas decorations - a battle lost. However, his desire to improve forestry in America led to the planting of an estimated 1 million trees in his adopted state of Nebraska on the first Arbor Day.
Arbor Day is generally celebrated on the last Friday of April, although the date is a bit flexible due to weather restrictions in parts of the country. The Rev. Birdseye Northrop took up the cudgel and spearheaded Arbor Day into the international event it is today. Nearly a century and a half ago, Morton and Birdseye realized the importance of trees in the regulation of our climate and their paramount horticultural place in our hearts and environment. Today, the Arbor Day Foundation is a nonprofit organization that partners with individuals, schools and government to foster an awareness and appreciation of the critical nature of trees by planting trees on Arbor Day.
Which brings us to Earth Day. Earth Day was conceived in 1970 on the wave of the counterculture vanguard. In the era of peace, bell bottom jeans and the Woodstock generation, the youth of America was moved to push what they saw as the destruction of nature and the American environment. Earth Day was born on April 22 to promote an awareness of what man was doing to the Earth and what could and should be done to alleviate the downward spiral.
Earth Day proved to have legs beyond the culture of '70s "flower power" and has been adopted by schools and government as a day to promote the awareness of our carbon footprint, recycling and improving and restoring the natural world. Earth Day is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
However, with restrictions on gatherings of groups with any size because of current pandemic health considerations, neither Arbor Day nor Earth Day were publicly celebrated in April, but you can continue the sentiment well into May!
Regardless of the appropriate date, let us, as individuals, at least pause to admire trees and forests and what we can do as individuals to ensure the Earth we have now is passed on to future generations improved, healthier and even more beautiful.
- Matthew Steichmann
• Provided through the Master Gardener Answer Desk, Friendship Park Conservatory, Des Plaines, and University of Illinois Extension, North Cook Branch Office, Arlington Heights. Call (847) 298-3502 on Wednesdays and Saturdays or (708) 725-2400 on Tuesdays or email northcookmg@gmail.com. Visit web.extension.illinois.edu/mg.