Today, Friday, April 25, 2025 is National Arbor Day. The NYS DEC is encouraging folks to participate in the “25 Million Trees by 2033” initiative. Entering the plantings in the DEC Tree Tracker program qualifies the planters for drawings for various prizes.

Arbor Day has been around for a while. The first documented tree planting festival was held in Spain in 1594. The first Arbor Day celebration in the U.S. occurred on April 10, 1872 to commemorate the planting of over one million trees in the state of Nebraska.

The American Forestry Association began to campaign for a nationwide Arbor Day in 1883. President Theodore Roosevelt, one of the greatest conservationists ever, issued his famous “Arbor Day Proclamation to the School Children of the United States” on April 15, 1907.

National Arbor Day is now held on the last Friday in April each year in the U.S. Arbor Day is, of course, celebrated worldwide. Over 50 different countries are listed by Wikipedia as having an Arbor Day.

Trees are incredibly important to sportsmen (and everyone else). They provide mast crops like acorns and beech nuts to feed the game that we pursue. They provide habitat to different species. Trees provide lumber for the houses that we live in. They provide firewood to keep us warm in the winter.

I own more than one rifle that has a walnut stock on it. Heck, trees even help to fill our lungs with oxygen when we are outdoors enjoying the sports that we love, like hunting, fishing, archery, trapping and hiking. I’ve also used them for stands on many occasions (don’t forget to use your Fall Arrest System harnesses!) Trees touch so many aspects of our lives.

The DEC has a toolkit available for anyone that wants to participate in the “25 Million Trees by 2033” event. There will be free seedlings available and they will be having a poster contest. Check out the DEC website for more info.

In closing, I want to encourage everyone to read Joyce Kilmer’s famous poem Trees. He said, “I think that I shall never see- a poem as lovely as a tree.” Truer words have rarely been spoken.

Let’s all enjoy the outdoors on Arbor Day!

John S. Van Etten is the current president of the Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs of Sullivan County, Inc.