Arbor Day

 

Since our Mom started work, she always joked with her bosses that she was a Druid and that she should have Arbor Day off as a holiday! Everyone always laughed. For our post this year, when creating the badge, Mom found out that Arbor Day is NOT a recent invention! 

The Spanish village of Mondoñedo held the first documented arbor plantation festival in the world organized by its mayor in 1594. The place remains as Alameda de los Remedios and it is still planted with lime and horse-chestnut trees. A humble granite marker and a bronze plate recall the event. Additionally, the small Spanish village of Villanueva de la Sierra held the first modern Arbor Day, an initiative launched in 1805 by the local priest with the enthusiastic support of the entire population. 

We will be planting a new tree this year, but it will not be on Arbor Day. 

The BIG tree that shades the back yard  needs to be replaced. He was not taken care of the way he should have been while Mom was working in Calgary and then Vancouver. Though he has had some of the branches that were breaking him apart the last couple of years, he is not as healthy as he could be. He has some splits and his big branches are making them worse. Several bad windstorms and heavy snow and ice this winter have opened the splits up even more. 

Right now he is FULL of ground bees who are collecting nectar. In May we hope to plant a new tree further up the bank and to the right of where he is. Then next fall, we will get Larry K (he is a tree specialist) to come and cut him back. We are leaving the stump as it will help stabilize the river bank until the new tree gets larger.

This is a photo of Marv in the tree last spring!

Keep Being AWESOME!

 

 

                
 

Celebrating 55 years - Earth Day 2025

 

 

 Every year on April 22, Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. 

Here is some of the history from the Earth Day Web Site.

In the decades leading up to the first, Americans were consuming vast amounts of leaded gas through massive and inefficient automobiles. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of the consequences from either the law or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Until this point, mainstream America remained largely oblivious to environmental concerns and how a polluted environment threatens human health.
However, the stage was set for change with the publication of Rachel Carson’s New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries as it raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and the inextricable links between pollution and public health.

Here is this year's poster!

Copyright (and/or) © 2025 Earthday.org. This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Alexis Rockman has created a truly special poster that I hope every school, library, and business will display to inspire people to support Earth Day 2025 and our theme backing renewable energy— Our Power, Our Planet.” said Kathleen Rogers, President of EARTHDAY.ORG. “This poster serves as a powerful reminder that we have energy options, and renewable energy can fuel our future without harming the planet. We invite everyone to join this movement and take action on Earth Action Day.

You can get a free low rez version of the poster here

 Or buy a copy of the poster here

 

Happy Earth Day!