We celebrate Arbor Day because trees are essential to our lives, from the very air we breathe to their calming force on our minds and communities. So, each Arbor Day, families and neighbors plant thousands of trees. Every year, those trees grow a little taller, and the people who planted them feel a little prouder.

You can help trees in your community this Arbor Day, and every day. Plant trees and protect them. Count on The Morton Arboretum as a source of expertise, as well as a beautiful, engaging place where you can celebrate the environment and all its gifts.

• Learn about the history of Arbor Day
• Discover the value of trees
• Learn how the Arboretum is studying our urban forest

The goal was to strengthen our partnership with the City of Chicago, Bureau of Forestry’s Arbor Day program aimed at each of the 50 city wards. This effort culminated with the placement of a high profile Arbor Day tree on Michigan Avenue. Arbor Day classroom visits and ceremonial tree-plantings were ramped up to visit 25 schools during Arbor Week.

This extraordinary outreach effort during our busiest week of the year relied heavily on diverse staff and volunteers. Throughout the planting season ending in May, we visited 33 Chicago schools and 2,740 fourth-grade students. This effort was possible with a new training effort, and coordination with the volunteer office and support from Education. Nine volunteers and 6 staff were prepared for the school visits with the optional training done by Community Trees.

Prior to Arbor Day all 50 schools were mailed brilliant green ribbons for each of the 5,000 participating students, who were told to answer the question “How does one tree make a difference to you?”

Teachers led students in writing responses and 3,257 ribbons were returned to us with inspiring, humorous, and clever messages promoted on our website, the annual t-shirt design, and in press communications. The ribbons were used in decorating the Arbor Week tree on Michigan Avenue, and trees at the Arboretum. Some schools retained ribbons for use on their Arbor Day trees.

The adorned Michigan Avenue tree, a Triumph® elm, was a beacon of green throughout Arbor Week and planted ceremoniously in Grant Park at the end of the week.

Another 7 suburban events were educational programs and ceremonial tree plantings involving another 1,200 school children. We re-wrote and re-designed the Arbor Day booklet this year with fresh, new challenges and activities to teach kids about trees and Arbor Day. Nearly 9,000 booklets were distributed at events we in which we participated, and broad outreach to an additional 58 communities in the region placed another 13,000 booklets.

Notably absent from this year’s festivities was Morty the Oak. He was diagnosed with severe Phytopthora root rot and was under arborist orders to rest in soil for the season. He was sorely missed by event organizers and children.

Suburban events, especially fair-type events, account for much of our total outreach. Many communities host local Earth Day and Arbor Day fairs featuring “green” resources, organizations, products and activities. In all, we staffed a booth at 11 fairs, speaking with an estimated 1,600 adults about tree care, the role of trees in green living, Arboretum resources and membership. We entertained an estimated 1,460 kids with leaf rubbing activities and tree walks. Two of these events were tree sales that allowed us to apply our expert plant information to curious homeowners.

Other unique community Arbor Day events brought our season totals to 56 events in 24 communities reaching 1,900 adults and 5,400 kids to plant 946 trees and 1,100 seedlings. This was accomplished with the help of 30 fellow staff members and 11 volunteers who stepped outside of usual tasks to drive into unfamiliar city neighborhoods and speak in front of a classroom or give up a weekend day to answer questions and promote the Arboretum. We participated in events in the following communities:

Aurora, Bartlett, Bolingbrook, Chicago, Cicero, Darien, Elk Grove Village, Franklin Park, Glendale Heights, Hinsdale, Lisle, Lockport, Naperville, North Elgin, Palos Heights, Palos Hills, Palos Park, Park Ridge, St. Charles, Warrenville, Westchester, Westmont, Winfield, Woodridge.

Thank you to JEWEL-OSCO, presenting sponsor for Arbor Week 2009. 

People
11 Arboretum volunteers participated in community events
30 Arboretum staff who participated in community events
1,500 additional kids we met face to face
1,950 adults we met face to face
3,940 students we visited at school
7,390 the total number of people we directly reached

Places
11 the number of community Earth/Arbor Day fairs in which we participated
24 the total number of communities we joined in celebration
33 the number of Chicago schools we visited
56 total community celebrations in which we participated
78 communities received Celebrate Arbor Day booklets

Things
11 family memberships raffled off or donated as Arbor Day prizes
58 watering cans decorated and donated to encourage care of Arbor Day trees
946 trees planted at Arbor Day events in which we participated
1,100 seedlings distributed at events in which we participated
1,200 hot dogs served at Bolingbrook’s Arbor Day event
3,257 lengths of ribbon inscribed with tree messages returned
22,000 Celebrate Arbor Day booklets distributed

Thank you to JEWEL-OSCO, presenting sponsor for Arbor Week 2009. 

The Morton Arboretum created Arbor Week (which was April 18-26, 2009) to draw attention to the importance of trees and their role in maintaining the Arboretum’s initiatives to create a greener, healthier world. Arbor Week may be behind us, but you can celebrate trees any time of the year. Discover ways you can make a difference!

Check out some of the comments we collected from Chicago fourth and fifth grade school children on the ”One Tree Makes a Difference” ribbons that were tied to the Triumph elm on Michigan Avenue during Arbor Week. Out of the mouths of babes!

Kid’s Comments: One Tree Makes a Difference . . . because
. . . I have felt really proud to help something grow, and I have helped my community.
. . . Birds build nests and lay their eggs in trees. Squirrels get nuts for trees or they take their nuts and leave them on the tree.
. . . Trees would also give me wood to build a tree house. I can spend my summer there.
. . . Trees also block the sun because when they do, not too much light will be on their face.
. . . it gives life to us.
. . . by giving me leaves to play with in the fall.
. . . by giving me shade on a hot day.
. . . by giving me a good place to play!
. . . It can be home to many different animals that can provide me with something to watch and enjoy.
. . .  because earth needs all the help it can have.
. . . If they chop down my favorite tree I will not be happy because it was my favorite tree. It was like a friend to me.
. . . They do us huge favors and they don’t even know it!
. . . Where would squirrels go and what about the poor little birds that they make their nests in?
. . . it might be a tree that you want to sit under.
. . . One tree can change the world!
. . . if any tree gets cut down the animals that live in it won’t have any home and that will make me feel sad because I’m an animal lover.
. . . lots of animals camouflage with green and brown. If a tree wasn’t there they would be found easily.
. . . One tree can provide oxygen to make the plants healthy and strong and to keep the plants dancing in the wind!
. . . Trees provide oxygen and shade so you’re not stressed.
. . . It helps our community be a better world.
. . . One tree can dance to the music of the oxygen’s fresh air.
. . . trees are amazing to me because they make me so happy to live in this world.
. . . It also gives home to animals which can make us laugh.
. . . When you eat junk food your stomach might hurt, so fruits are important to us.
. . . I even water my tree by my house. That’s how trees should be treated.
. . . By providing the needs we humans need!
. . . it lets us live in a peaceful world.
. . . We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the trees. They give us air to breathe.So let’s plant trees to live!
. . . Trees are our future!
. . . A breath of fresh air shows us the difference one tree can make.
. . . Conserve trees because we need the rain forest.
. . . The city looks beautiful with trees.
. . . If you cut down a tree you are leaving animals homeless.
. . . It could let the animals stay at their homes and not move all the time.
. . . Cutting a tree is like demolishing a home!
. . . If you cut down trees you are cutting out a piece of life.
. . . one tree can protect us from a sunny day with its shadow.
. . . when we’re hot the trees give us a little wind, which that breeze feels very good.
. . . there is one tree that reminds me of my old house.
. . . They are serene and gorgeous.
. . . I think that we’re harming everything including ourselves.
. . . each tree is special and each tree has its own reason to be alive.
. . . every tree chopped down kills the world a little bit.
. . . trees are our helpers.
. . . One tree that makes a difference to me is the one in front of my house because it gives me the most oxygen and one day I dream to be on top of it.
. . . to save one tree means to me like saving a life.
. . . trees give shade for picnics.
. . . Trees help make the earth smile good!

Thank you to JEWEL-OSCO, presenting sponsor for Arbor Week 2009. 
 

Ah, another Arbor Day is behind us! I have always defended Arbor Day as the original environmental holiday. The purity and simplicity of its purpose – planting trees – allows us a sense of accomplishment if we can just get some trees in the ground.

Earth Day, the more visible holiday in recent years, aims awfully high and makes strides to save the earth by recycling electronics, establishing composting-worm colonies, making paper and plugging in compact fluorescent bulbs.

Arbor Day is actually about a month of activity for the Community Trees Program. So, finally, I am pausing a moment after more than a month of whirlwind activity to lean on my shovel and consider our accomplishments. In the past year, the Community Trees Program of The Morton Arboretum doubled its staff and there are now two of us advocating for trees. So to really branch out for trees, I turn my advocacy skills inward to sell my Arboretum colleagues on the rewards of community Arbor Day celebrations. If I can get them to take the bait, they are rarely disappointed.

This year, as in the past, Arboretum staff from most every department pitched in to help promote the Morton family motto “Plant Trees” in communities throughout the region. But this year we received an extra boost from very talented volunteers who joined staff in our crazy ambition to visit 25 Chicago schools during Arbor Week. And, we did it!

In total we visited 40 schools in the city and suburbs and planted a love for trees in 3,940 young minds. We also participated in Arbor Day celebrations in 23 other communities and joined in planting 946 trees and 6,100 seedlings. Those trees take root. Really, they do.

As I was driving to my first event in Aurora, I passed a small oak at the Prisco Community Center that Morty the Oak and I helped plant two years ago with a great tree advocate with the Fox Valley Park District, Bill Donnell, and dozens of pre-schoolers. That tender tree, budding vigorously, made me smile. These trees “take,” but I’m marvel even more at the way ideas have taken root in some very special community leaders.

Bill Donnell has been the Arbor Day champion in Aurora for a few years now. This year he launched a new initiative with scouts and community volunteers to plant 1,500 trees in Aurora parks. Last year, just a week or so before Arbor Day, I received a call from an earth science teacher at Nequa Valley High School wanting to plant trees on campus with his students. Though my Arbor Day dance card was nearly full, good-natured colleague Ed Hedborn agreed to visit the Naperville school and help teach the students about tree-planting. He was impressed with the teacher, Nick Marasco, and his students. This Arbor Day, I received another last-minute request for assistance from a youth mentoring group in Aurora, called Triple Threat, wanting to plant trees at a grade school. High school students were scheduled to help the younger students plant six trees. Turns out those students are taught and inspired by the very same teacher and tree advocate we met last year. Nick also led his students in planting 43 additional trees at Nequa Valley this past year.

The last of my tree advocate progeny to tell you about is in Palos Heights. A few years ago, Joe McGee dropped in on me while visiting the Arboretum for the day. As president of the Navajo Hills Homeowners Association, he wanted me to help assure his neighborhood that trees were flourishing and would for many years. I visited the subdivision and made some suggestions for involving residents in planting more diverse trees. Two years ago they collaborated with the city of Palos Heights to plant 19 ornamental and other native trees along Navajo Creek. This year they launched a new project to “Take a Stake in Navajo” by planting trees, as hinted by the Navajo tree committee that selected and marked candidate planting locations with a wooden stake. They worked very hard to make it easy for their neighbors to say “yes” to new, quality trees. They developed a $25,000 plan for canopy restoration in the community and asked the Palos Heights City Council for assistance. In what I think is a perfect public-private partnership, the city anted up one-third of the cost of the new trees, the homeowners association put in another one third and the residents have been asked to put up the last share. A neighborhood garden center allows resident to easily choose native and hardy trees. The Arbor Day celebration in April kicked off the program to plant 75 new trees in the community.

So many of us can feel a sense of accomplishment about this successful Arbor Day – the Chicago Bureau of Forestry and the Chicago Public Schools, my co-workers and our volunteers, the stellar community tree advocates and the neighbors they touch.

We all can celebrate as passion for trees takes root and grows in communities reaching far and wide. Happy Arbor Day!

Thank you to JEWEL-OSCO, presenting sponsor for Arbor Week 2009. 

Arbor Day, the annual signature holiday of The Morton Arboretum, draws attention to one of earth’s most vital resources: trees.

Watch this space for news and information about celebrations planned for Arbor Week 2009, April 19-26.

Here’s what we did in 2008: For the first time, the Arboretum expanded its celebration to run for a full week, which meant that the recognition and celebration of Earth Day 2008 was included in the 2008 festivities.

A surge in the public’s awareness of Earth Day and its associated activities strongly influenced the Arboretum’s Arbor Day celebrations this year. Six new communities invited us to participate in their Earth Day events: Franklin Park, Elk Grove Village, Evergreen Park, Homer Glen, Park Ridge and Argonne National Labs in Darien. These communities initiated events and reported success with broad public participation.

Morty the Oak extended our reach into new communities and new events. Morty is growing in popularity each year, and we were able to make 17 visits to greet and inspire more than 3,000 kids. Events were carefully selected to allow Morty time to interact with children for better teaching opportunities.

Sponsorship of the Arboretum’s Celebrate Arbor Day booklets by our 2008 Arbor Week Contributing Sponsors Sara Lee Foundation and Waste Management enabled us to distribute 18,000 booklets in 50 communities. Those 50 communities reported Arbor Day events at 108 schools resulting in the planting of nearly 1,000 ceremonial trees and 4,700 seedlings for planting at home. Of those events, 20 were traditional Arbor Day school planting events, 3 were civic ceremonies, 10 were fair-type public events, 2 were tree sales and one was a parade.

Another 5,000 booklets were provided to the City of Chicago to fully support their Arbor Day outreach to 50 targeted schools. The Celebrate Arbor Day booklet is the only regional widely available publication specifically designed to teach young children about trees and Arbor Day. In addition to this broader outreach, the Arboretum’s Community Tree Advocate program coordinated and attended many community events. We met a total audience of 1,900 adults and 4,800 kids face-to-face at 36 events in 27 communities! Twenty one Arboretum employees joined kids and residents in planting 124 trees on public land, helping to sell 850 trees, and giving out 6,800 seedlings for planting in home gardens. Arboretum representatives attended events in:

Arlington Heights, Aurora, Bolingbrook, Chicago, Darien, Downers Grove, Elburn, Elk Grove, Evergreen Park, Franklin Park, Glen Ellyn, Glendale Heights, Homer Glen, Joliet, Lemont, Lisle, Lombard, Naperville, Oak Park, Park Ridge, Riverdale, Warrenville, Westmont, Winfield, Wood Dale and Woodridge.

Corporate Support - In 2008, entire companies joined the Arbor Week festivities! We gratefully acknowledge our Arbor Week Contributing Sponsors: The Sara Lee Foundation and Waste Management. To raise awareness about the environmental benefits of paperless billing, Commonwealth Edison pledged to donate 1 tree for every 100 customers who enrolled in direct debit and E-Bill. As a result, ComEd donated 133 oak trees to The Morton Arboretum. On April 22, ComEd employees helped plant those trees on our grounds. On Arbor Day, April 25, IKEA presented a $500 check to the Arboretum in the Children’s Garden.

Arbor Day Roots - Arbor Day, the nation’s oldest environmental holiday and the signature holiday of The Morton Arboretum, was the brainchild of Julius Sterling Morton (1832-1903) who served as a U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and whose son, Joy Morton (1855-1934), founded The Morton Arboretum in Lisle in 1922.

We want to hear about you! Tell us what you did to celebrate Arbor Day in 2008. Would you like to get your community more involved in planting trees? Find out about the Arboretum’s Community Tree Program and read “Tree Huggers: Someone You Should Know” about our Community Tree Advocate and tree talk columnist Edith Makra.