Arbor Day 2027 is on Friday

About Arbor Day

Arbor Day is about trees: planting them, caring for them and teaching people why they matter. It began on the Great Plains. Settlers in largely treeless Nebraska had little wood for fuel or building, little shade in summer and nothing to break the wind that stripped away their soil.

J. Sterling Morton, a Nebraska City newspaper editor with a passion for trees, proposed a tree-planting holiday called Arbor Day at a meeting of the State Board of Agriculture on January 4, 1872. The first Arbor Day was held on April 10, 1872, with prizes for the counties and individuals who properly planted the most trees, and the Arbor Day Foundation says an estimated 1 million or more trees went into the ground in Nebraska that day. Governor Robert W. Furnas officially proclaimed the holiday in 1874, and in 1885 Nebraska made it a legal state holiday with a permanent date of April 22.

Other states soon passed their own Arbor Day laws, and by 1920 more than 45 states and territories held one. Schools took up the tradition in 1882, teaching children about trees and giving them saplings to plant at home. Today all 50 states observe Arbor Day. The most common date, known as National Arbor Day, is the last Friday in April, but some states pick a date that fits their own planting season, which can be as early as midwinter in Southern states or as late as May in the northernmost ones. Many other countries also hold tree-planting days of their own on different dates.

Sources: Arbor Day Foundation: History of Arbor Day, Arbor Day Foundation: Celebrate Arbor Day. How we check dates.

How to mark Arbor Day

• Plant a tree suited to your climate and space; a local nursery or cooperative extension office can recommend native species.
• Water, mulch and check on young trees in your yard or neighborhood, since the first few years after planting are the most fragile.
• Join a community tree-planting or park cleanup run by your city, a school or a local conservation group.
• Take children on a walk to identify trees by their leaves, bark and seeds, and talk about what each tree provides.
• Find out when your own state observes Arbor Day, since some states use a different date to match local planting seasons.

Arbor Day dates