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Ohio
has 248
Tree City
USA
communities.
Michigan
has 111. Tree City USA is sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation in
cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service and the National
Association of State Foresters, and was established to recognize
communities that are committed to its trees.
More than 120 million Americans live in a
Tree City USA community. To see a list of
Tree City USA communities, go to
www.arborday.org/programs/treeCityUSA.cfm.
The first Arbor Day was celebrated
in Nebraska on April 10, 1872,
thanks to a resolution proposed by
Nebraska City, Neb., resident J. Sterling Morton. Morton, a
civic leader, agriculturist, and former newspaper editor, urged
Nebraskans to “set aside one day to plant trees, both forest and
fruit.”
The tree-planting holiday was so popular that by 1920, more than
45 states and U.S. territories annually celebrated
Arbor Day. Today,
Arbor Day is observed in all 50
states and in many countries around the world.
The state tree of Ohio is the Ohio
buckeye, Aesculus glabra. This native Ohio tree was adopted
as the official state tree in 1953. Not to be confused with the
Horse chestnut tree, the Ohio buckeye was named a ‘buckeye’ tree
because the tree’s large brown seeds closely resemble the eyes of
a white-tailed deer. This tree inspired the
Ohio nickname, the Buckeyes, a
nickname that has been around since the presidential elections of
1840 where William Harrison, an Ohio resident, won the presidency.
The state tree
of Michigan is the Eastern white pine and it was chosen in 1955.
It lives an average of 200 years and can live as long as 400
years. This pine was known to the Haudenosaunee Native
Americans as the tree of great peace, and its needles contain five
times the amount of calcium than that of a lemon. Eastern white
pines are among the tallest trees east of the Rocky Mountains, and
are the state trees of both Michigan and Maine.
The Arbor Day Foundation is a nonprofit conservation organization
of nearly one million members, with a mission to inspire people to
plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. More information on the
Foundation and its programs or ways to celebrate
Arbor Day can be found at
www.arborday.org.
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