Arbor Day, Earth Day, And How We Are Doing Our Part - Editorial
On Monday, more than 192 countries around the globe will celebrate Earth Day. It is a well-known holiday, but what is somewhat less known is that just a few days later on Friday, Massachusetts will celebrate Arbor Day, a holiday specifically focused on trees and their importance to a community.
Some may be familiar with Arbor Day, but for many it seems to fade into the background noise of Earth Day. We, for example, were surprised to learn that Arbor Day was the precursor. It was initially celebrated in America on April 10, 1872 thanks to the editor of the Nebraska City News, Julius Sterling Morton, who championed the importance of planting trees throughout the then-barren Nebraska landscape.
Nebraska declared Morton’s birthday, April 22, as Arbor Day in 1885. A few years later, Mr. Morton was appointed as President Grover Cleveland’s secretary of agriculture.
Today, all 50 states and a number of countries around the world recognize Arbor Day, but the day of the celebration varies depending on when the best conditions for tree planting are locally. In both Massachusetts and nationally, Arbor Day is recognized on the fourth Friday of April.
Earth Day was first held on April 22, 1970—the same day as Arbor Day that year. The concept, brought forth by US Senator Gaylord Nelson, had a broader approach to environmentalism and was intended to invigorate the public consciousness about air and water pollution following the 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara. It seemed to work, and with more than 1 billion participants worldwide, Earth Day has now eclipsed Arbor Day as the environmental holiday of note for most.
These two holidays, both environmentally focused, are each as important and deserving of our attention today as they were at the time of their inception. Deforestation to the extent we’ve seen in the 21st century would surely have Mr. Morton—who was such an avid dendrophile that his mansion was and is called Arbor Lodge—rolling over in his grave. Large-scale tree planting efforts have helped combat the problem, but the dearth of trees is an enduring concern for many.
The theme of Earth Day 2024 is “Planet versus Plastics.” Anyone reading these words on page four of our print edition may see the irony in our waxing poetic about the importance of trees while mass producing newspapers for our circulation—but don’t count us out just yet.
Last fall, we implemented a policy to reduce our use of plastics by foregoing the plastic bag for home deliveries unless rain is falling or forecast. Instead, papers are fastened with rubber bands and customers have the option of purchasing a blue delivery tube for a more-sustainable, long-term option.
The Enterprise is proud to share that we have reduced our use of single-use plastics by over 30 percent: at this point in 2023, approximately 160,000 plastic bags had been used in home deliveries. As of last month, we have gone through about 50,000. It might not seem like a lot in the grand scheme of everything, but it is an initiative that we are proud of. We must all do our part to protect the communities that we live in—we hope you will agree.