Get familiar with a student’s blog entry about Arbor Day and do the exercises below.

Anna Faszcza

Hi everybody,

A. Last year I was invited to participate in a forestationforestationforestation drive of the local area and I totally got into it! We managed to plant hundreds of trees in one day! Most of which were deciduous treesdeciduous trees [deciduous tree]deciduous trees such as oaksoaks [oak]oaks, poplarspoplars [poplar]poplars and maplesmaples [maple]maples and just one birchbirch birch. There were also a couple of conifersconifers [conifer]conifers like pinespines [pine]pines and sprucesspruces [spruce]spruces. The idea of planting trees is not new and so far has gained great popularity around the world.

B. Did you know that Arbor Day started with Julius Sterling Morton who settled downsettled down [settle down]settled down in the Nebraska territory with his newly wedded wife in 1854? At that time, Nebraska was a really primitive land with hardly any trees. As a hard‑working man, he built a farm, planted little saplingssaplings [sapling]saplings and started to run an orchardrun an orchardrun an orchard with over 1,500 apple, peach, and cherry trees. Actually, he earned a livingearned a living [earn a living]earned a living by producing and selling fruit and taking it around the world for competitions. But Morton wanted more than that. Above all, he desperately wanted to beautifybeautifybeautify the surroundings. He started to plant treesplant trees [plant a tree]plant trees to replace the tall prairie grass.

C. Morton's tree‑planting project quickly started to attract more and more people. As the president of a state board of agriculture, he suggested a day being set asideset asideset aside particularly for this purpose in Nebraska. The first registered Arbor Day took place on the 10th of April, 1872. You will never guess how many trees were planted that day! A million! It is unbelievable! The record‑holder managed to plant 35,000 in one day! Since that great success, forestation has become an annual thing. Little by little, other states picked up the ideapicked up an idea [pick up an idea]picked up the idea. The action spread not only in the U.S.A. but also around the world, on all continents.

D. Arbour Day is known across the world. People gather for one day to plant trees in their regions because they consider trees essential for the environment and our wellbeing. Originally, the day was celebrated on Morton's birthday, the 22nd of April, but later the date was changed to the last day of April. In some places, it differs depending ondepending on [depend on]depending on when tree planting time is convenient and the ground isn’t frozen yet (or any more). In Poland, for instance, we enjoy Arbour Day on the 10th of October.

E. There are a number of reasons why we all get so excited about trees. The fact that trees produce oxygenproduce oxygenproduce oxygen, use up carbon dioxideuse up carbon dioxideuse up carbon dioxide, and help get rid of pollutionget rid of pollutionget rid of pollution in the air is rather obvious. But we tend to forget that they also provide shadeprovide shadowprovide shade on hot sunny days and lower the temperature on Earth, which is a great relief, isn’t it? Remember that trees also help keep land stablekeep land stablekeep land stable during storms, winds or rain, which means less soil erosionsoil erosionsoil erosion. Some people feel deeply connected to trees and sometimes might hug the trunktrunktrunk to feel the tree's energy.

F. The fact is that Arbor Day is not only about planting. This day is devoted to the recognition of the importancerecognition of the importancerecognition of the importance of trees. Plant your own tree if you can, but if that's not possible, there are still other things you can do, for example educate yourself or others about how to preserve forestspreserve forests [preserve a forest]preserve forests or sign a petition to save forestssign petitions to save forests [sign a petition to save a forest]sign a petition to save forests. Remember to throw waste paper into a special container and recycle newspapersrecycle newspapers recycle newspapers, which undoubtedly contributes to saving trees. Consider joining a wildlife organisation.

Finally, just think… If anyone could plant one tree a year, imagine how much that would change the world around us. Besides, it’s such a wonderful feeling to see how the seedlingsseedlings [seedling]seedlings we plant sproutsprout (verb)sprout and grow!
Stay safe!

1 Źródło: Anna Faszcza, licencja: CC BY-SA 3.0.