Celebrate Trees on Arbor Day and Arbor Month in Minnesota

Happy Arbor Day! This tree-topping holiday is celebrated on the last Friday in April with a mission of inspiring tree planting across our nation. Did you know that the idea for Arbor Day came from a Nebraska pioneer named J. Sterling Morton. Originally from Detroit, he and his wife were nature lovers and when they moved to the plains of Nebraska in 1854, they started planting trees, shrubs and flowers and inspiring others to do the same. If you visit Nebraska today, you will see that it not longer is a treeless plain.

Did you know that Minnesota is the only state that celebrates trees for a whole month? That’s right! May is Arbor Month in Minnesota and the Minnesota DNR-Division of Forestry puts extra focus on encouraging tree planting and care. CEL had the privilege of helping them do that for many years, the most memorable being 2005, when we came up with the idea to place huge price tags on all of the trees on the front lawn of the State Capitol to highlight their value. This public relations campaign hit the press in a big way and attracted so much media attention that foresters all over the world are replicated it to educate people on the value of trees.

Trees provide shade and help improve the air you breathe, but did you know that they also add value to your property? One of the big trees on at the Capitol is worth $1200.

What are your trees worth? On this Arbor Day or during Arbor Month, go out in your back yard and make notes on your trees and their approximate age. Then, go online to the National Tree Benefit Calculator and enter the information to find out how much your trees are worth.

Let us know what you find out!

Published on: April 26, 2013