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LASN Stewardship March 200603-02-06 | News



Arbor Day: A Chance to Lend a Limb

By Erik Skindrud, regional editor




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Tom Wirth, ASLA, (at left) directed the planting of honeylocust trees on the town?EUR??,,????'?????<


What the heck is Arbor Day? Most Americans probably couldn?EUR??,,????'?????<

Tired of Nebraska?EUR??,,????'?????<

On Jan. 4, 1872, Morton proposed the tree-planting holiday to the State Board of Agriculture. The date was set for April 10 of that year. Prizes were offered to counties and citizens for planting the largest number of trees. More than one million trees were planted in Nebraska on that first Arbor Day.

National Arbor Day is celebrated each year on the last Friday in April. A number of state and local Arbor Days are observed at other times to coincide with the best tree planting weather, from January and February in the south to May in Alaska, Maine and Vermont.

Massachusetts?EUR??,,????'?????<






State and local Arbor Days vary based on climate and latitude. The Arbor Day foundation provides this map and other information on the group?EUR??,,????'?????<

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Landscape Architect Thomas E. Wirth, ASLA, took advantage of the date to help his community plant four skyline honeylocust trees along Main Street. Wirth said he will plant more on National Arbor Day this April. The town drew up new plans for Main Street in the late 1990s to improve traffic flow. Wirth, as a member of an ad-hoc committee, developed an alternative plan retaining the old road width, and replanting trees close to the road to maintain local scale and character and keep traffic flow at bay.

The trees were tagged by Wirth at Weston Nurseries in nearby Hopkinton, and planted by their landscape division with Tom?EUR??,,????'?????<

Lending a hand on Arbor Day seems a particularly appropriate way for Landscape Architects to do something good and green while raising their community profile?EUR??,,????'?????<

One is the Nebraska-based Arbor Day Foundation?EUR??,,????'?????<

The trees set for planting in Mississippi and Louisiana include bald cypress, eastern red cedar, red maple, and red oak. Native trees and other natural habitats are important assets for the Gulf Coast and are vital to millions of birds that migrate across the Gulf of Mexico and depend on trees, forests and other habitats to provide feeding and resting areas.

To learn more: www.arborday.org/katrina






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