Planting a tree is absolutely the easiest way to help the environment. Trees produce fresh oxygen, refresh polluted air and keep tainted soil in place and out of rivers and streams. Girlawhirl, who has a city garden of planted pots on her fire escape, can't wait for the day when she has a real yard and garden to tend. But, whether or not she's got her own trees to tend to, a day dedicated to adding trees and reducing pollution is something she's more than willing to celebrate in her own way…
Everyone who is on Girlawhirl's holiday card list is getting a different sort of greeting card from her today. Instead of Yuletide and New Year's greetings, everyone is getting a tree, or really the promise of a tree planted in their name, in honor of Arbor Day.
For only $5 Girlawhirl can send a Tree Card from The National Arbor Day Foundation that assures a tree is planted in a national forest that's been damaged by fire, insects or disease. It's truly a gift that keeps on giving and it's certainly a program Girlawhirl thinks Arbor Day founder J. Sterling Morton would be proud of.
He initiated the first Arbor Day in 1872 after he and his wife moved from Detroit to the then treeless Nebraska Territory. As editor of Nebraska's first newspaper, Morton had a platform at his disposal that he used frequently to promote planting trees. He approached the State Board of Agriculture to create a “tree-planting holiday,” and it's estimated that more than one million trees were planted in Nebraska on that April day in 1872.
And while Girlawhirl's tiny apartment fire escape doesn't allow her to plant one tree – let alone one million – a country living Super Pal is having a garden(ing) party to help her celebrate.
Girlawhirl is picking up a tree on the way. Her Super Pal has the cocktails mixed, and the ladies are going to get down and dirty sprucing up her Pal's sprawling grounds. 
Girlawhirl can't think of a better way to spend a beautiful spring afternoon.
Click here to send a National Arbor Day Foundation Tree Card.
Click here to join the National Arbor Day Foundation.
related articles:
| Aug 30, 2006: | Go Zero and Plant-a-Tree with Gaiam.com. read full entry |
| Nov 13, 2006: | girlawhirl figures out a way to travel green with my-climate. read full entry |