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Arbor Day celebrates planting and nurturing trees, and all the ways trees enrich our lives and stabilize the environment. Historians trace Arbor Day’s origins back to the fifth century when Swiss villagers gathered to plant groves of oak trees. Adults turned the event into a festival and children were given treats as a reward for their help planting trees.

Arbor Day first appeared in the United States in 1872. J. Sterling Morton is credited with guiding this country’s first Arbor Day resolution through the Nebraska Legislature that year. Residents of the Great Plains recognized how much trees could do for them, and they enthusiastically embraced Morton’s vision.

President Theodore Roosevelt was a strong supporter of Arbor Day. Early in the 20th century, it was becoming clear that the nation’s forests were being exhausted by cut-out-and-get-out timber harvesting. The science of forest management was emerging, and the government was moving to suppress wildfires and plant trees. Roosevelt sent a letter to the children of the United States in which he wrote, “A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as hopeless.”

In Texas, Arbor Day first appeared in Temple on Feb. 22, 1889. W. Goodrich Jones led the citizens of Temple in a mass meeting to call for a tree-planting campaign along the streets of the city. One year later, the first statewide observance of Arbor Day was held in Austin. Through the efforts of Sen. George Tyler of Belton, Feb. 22 was set aside by law as Arbor Day to encourage planting trees in the state.

After the original Texas Arbor Day law expired, the state continued to observe Arbor Day by proclamation of the governor, usually on George Washington’s birthday. In 1949, the Texas Legislature adopted a resolution designating the third Friday in January as Texas Arbor Day.

In 1989 the Legislature passed a resolution moving Texas Arbor Day to the last Friday in April to align with the traditionally observed national Arbor Day. Today, the official Texas Arbor Day is held on the first Friday in November. Still, thanks to the diversity of this state, Arbor Day can be celebrated in Texas communities anytime throughout the fall and winter planting season.

Resource: https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/news/2022/10/arbor-day

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