Earth Day and Arbor Day

Yesterday- April 22nd- Earth Day and Arbor Day were jointly celebrated in Santa Monica by the planting of two substantial Camphor trees in Los Amigos Park. The planting of the trees was watched and assisted by the students of two local schools- Santa Monica Alternative School House (SMASH) and John Muir Elementary School. The trees were supplied by Santa Monica City Council.

Camphor trees are natives of Taiwan, Southern Japan, South East China and Indochina.

One would have liked to see more than two trees being planted- some cities plant hundreds of trees- but two trees is better than none. Also, it is good to be able to write of trees being planted rather than being destroyed.

As I was unable to get there, I am showing a photo from the Santa Monica Daily Press:
Photo: Brandon Wise
Last month I wrote at some length about the origins of Arbor Day: Link

Growing Chairs and Tree Celebrations

I was fascinated recently to read Stone Art Blog's post for Ireland's National Tree Week. He tells us how to grow our own, living tree chairs:

This art has apparently been practiced since at least 1516:

But you must read his great article yourself: click here

Apart from anything else, it is interesting to know that Ireland holds a whole week for trees. Here in the US we just have one day- Arbor Day, generally celebrated on the last Friday of April in all the US States. It was initially created by Julius Sterling Morton in 1872 in Nebraska. He understood the value of trees for the state's landscape and economy, and grew orchards, shade trees and windbreaks himself. Becoming a member of Nebraska's state board of agriculture, he instigated a special day being set aside to plant trees and increase awareness of their importance. On Nebraska's first Arbor Day at least a million trees were planted!
Julius Sterling Morton
Santa Monica has been one of the Arbor Day Foundation's Tree Cities USA for 28 years, one of the criteria being that an Arbor Day must be held every year. Santa Monica Treesavers were concerned that this did not always happen- but it certainly took place last year and this year will be celebrated by a tree planting on April 22nd, combining Earth Day with Arbor Day- more about that later...