Arbor Day Explained | Why We Celebrate Trees + How to Get Involved
April 25, 2025
Let’s Talk About Arbor Day 🌳
Why Trees Deserve a Holiday (and How You Can Celebrate with Us!)
Today, we wanna talk to you about something that’s near and dear to our hearts at Bim Bam Boo: Arbor Day. Why? Because we’re on a mission to save trees — and Arbor Day is literally a celebration of them!
Being the curious (and maybe slightly nerdy) tree-lovers we are, we dug into the history of this leafy holiday. Here’s what we found, and we think you’ll love it.
The Roots of Arbor Day
Arbor Day got its start way back in the 1870s thanks to a man named J. Sterling Morton. He was the editor of the Nebraska City News and a member of the Nebraska Board of Agriculture. Morton believed Nebraska needed more trees — not just for beauty, but for shade, windbreaks, and all the goodness that trees bring.
So, he pitched the idea of a tree-planting holiday to the board. With his influence as a newspaper editor, he spread the word and got the community excited. On April 10, 1872, Nebraska celebrated the very first Arbor Day, and it’s estimated that over a million trees were planted that day. Incredible, right?
How Arbor Day Grew
From there, the idea spread like wildfire (but the good kind). By the 1890s, all U.S. states were celebrating Arbor Day. Then in 1970, President Richard Nixon made it a national holiday as part of a larger wave of environmental reforms. During his administration, landmark legislation like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and the creation of the EPA were all rolled out. Talk about a green streak!
Arbor Day Today
Nowadays, Arbor Day is celebrated on the last Friday of April. It’s a chance to honor nature, reflect on the importance of trees, and — of course — plant some!
Come Celebrate With Us!
If you're in the Twin Cities, come hang out with us at the Minneapolis Arbor Day Festival at Kenny Park! Bim Bam Boo will be there handing out our signature tubular tissues (yep, they're tree-saving superheroes in disguise) and chatting about simple ways you can help protect forests.
Let’s celebrate trees together — because every tree counts, and so does every person who cares about them.
🌲 Happy Arbor Day!
— The Bim Bam Boo Team
Wanna Learn More?
We didn’t make this stuff up — here are the sources we used to nerd out on tree history: