It’s more likely than not every person in the world has, at least once, seen a tree. As human beings, we cannot live without trees: They clean our air, provide oxygen, conserve energy, save water, prevent water pollution and soil erosion, offer food and healing and create economic opportunities. I could go on, noting how they create a canopy and habitat for wildlife, provide wood and combat climate change. This last one is particularly critical, as the Paris Climate Change Conference attested to it. As stated by Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving land, “a single grown tree can release enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support two human beings.”
What we can read from Wikipedia about a tree fails to do it justice. There is no universally recognized — either botanically or in common language — definition for what constitutes a tree, but in its broadest sense, a tree is any plant with the general form of an elongated stem, or trunk, that supports the photosynthetic leaves or branches at some distance above the ground. From a more scientific understanding, Society of American Forester defined a tree as a woody perennial plant, typically large and with a well-defined stem or stems carrying a more or less definite crown. No matter which definition we use to clarify exactly what a tree is, the most important thing is that the world can agree on the benefits of trees themselves.
Florida, which has approximately 17.3 million acres of forests, will commemorate Florida Arbor Day, an annual observance that celebrates the role trees play in our lives, on Jan. 15. The holiday is meant to promote tree planting and care.
We should thank Julius Sterling Morton, a journalist and nature lover, who came up with the idea to plant trees in Nebraska when he noticed there were virtually no trees there in 1854. Later, the State Board of Agriculture accepted Morton’s resolution on April 10, 1872, by planting one million trees in Nebraska in honor of the first Arbor Day. Now, all 50 states in the U.S. have official Arbor Days aimed to take the correct climatological conditions for planting trees into consideration. Tallahassee, Florida’s state capital, has its ideal tree planting period in January; therefore, Florida’s Arbor Day is celebrated on the third Friday of the month every year.
This tradition is not restricted to the U.S. More than 30 countries also celebrate the day (or at least something very similar) as stated by the Arbor Day Foundation, a nonprofit conservation and education organization, on its website (arborday.org). My country of origin, Indonesia, also celebrates a similar movement, called Hari Menanam Pohon Indonesia (Indonesia Planting Trees’ Day), every Nov. 28.
So, then, what can we do during Florida Arbor Day to combat climate change? We should support the “one person, one tree” movement. Imagine all Floridians planting trees at the same time during Florida Arbor Day. This would mean 16 million new, fertile trees. In line with what American Forestry Association Tree Facts: Growing Greener Cities stated in 1992, “(i)f every American family planted just one tree, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere would be reduced by one billion lbs. annually. This is almost five percent of the amount that human activity pumps into the atmosphere each year.” Many institutions in Florida celebrate the holiday, such as the Florida Forest Service’s announcement to plant more than two million new trees on more than 3,000 acres of state forests this year.
What are we waiting for? Let’s do a small, kind action and participate in Florida Arbor Day tomorrow to have a cleaner environment and a better quality of life.
Hermudananto is a UF forest resources and conservation master’s student.
