Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. Not only is the weather cooling down, college football and tailgating is in full swing, but we also get to celebrate Texas State Arbor Day. The state holiday falls on the first Friday of November which is also an excellent opportunity to buy and plant your favorite shade or ornamental trees. You might be thinking, “Isn’t Arbor Day in April?” Yes, if you live in most of the country. Arbor Day was first celebrated in the United States on April 10, 1872, in Nebraska, and the idea of an official day for promoting and planting trees quickly spread throughout the country.
One hundred years after its first celebration, National Arbor Day was designated to be on the last Friday in April. The only problem with this is that many times (including this past National Arbor Day), North Texas can see temperatures well into the 80s with heat indexes into the 90s during late April. Although Fannin Tree Farm has a year-round 98% success rate planting trees, fall is generally a better time to establish trees. Cooler temperatures create more favorable conditions for a successful transition into the tree’s permanent home. This is why, in 2013, the state of Texas created “Texas State Arbor Day,” which falls on the first Friday of November.
Each year the official Texas State Arbor Day celebration is hosted in a different city and on National Arbor Day, the Texas A&M Forest Service announced that this year’s state celebration would be held in El Paso, Texas. “The idea is for everyone in Texas to take one day – the same day – to truly appreciate trees and plant one,” said Paul Johnson Texas A&M Forest Service urban and community forestry program coordinator. “Planting a tree leaves a legacy for future generations while beautifying the spaces where we live, work and play today.”
Here are some things you can do with your family, school or community for Texas State Arbor Day:
- Celebrate by planting a tree
- Take a class of students on a tree identification hike around campus or within your community
- Plant trees on your school campus
- Challenge schools within the local districts to create Tree Trails on their campuses
- Have a contest for students to find the oldest trees in the community and research the history of the tree. For example, when the tree was ten years old, what was going on in your community, the nation, and or the world
- Hold an essay contest where students describe the importance of trees to their community
- Select unique trees to plant as a memorial or honorary trees
- Invite a local arborist to give a tree-climbing demonstration
- Ask an arborist or Tree Company to come out and give a talk on trees, how to maintain trees or other tree related topics for your school, community group, church or scouts group.
- Take a Family walk at a local park and talk about the trees and what trees provide to our world.
Fannin Tree Farm would love to spend part of your Arbor Day with you, come out the 2nd to the 4th for our Texas Arbor Day Sale. All of our trees will be on sale and select inventory up to 30% off. We will have Arbor Day Activity Books for the Kids, a food truck on Saturday and lots of great Texas Shade Trees to choose.
Sources:
