Arbor Day!

Today is Georgia's official Arbor Day! The Georgia Southern Botanical Garden, Keep Bulloch Beautiful, and the Bulloch Council of Garden Clubs will be sponsoring the third annual Arbor Day Celebration. The festival will be on February 17 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in downtown Statesboro. Participants will learn all about the benefits of trees and also how to properly take care of them. The festival features guided walks on a nature trail, presentations by professionals from Future Trees about how to plant and prune a tree. Plus, there will be information booths set up and nature crafts. There will also be free food and arboreal advice and free tree saplings will be given out.

The purpose of Arbor Day is to encourage the planting and cultivation of trees. It began as an effort to promote settlement in the tree-barren state of Nebraska. Arbor Day was officially proclaimed by Nebraska's Gov. Robert W. Furnas on March 12, 1874, and the day itself was observed April 10, 1874. In 1885, Arbor Day was named a legal holiday in Nebraska and April 22, Morton's birthday, was selected as the date for its permanent observance. It is estimated that more than 1 million trees were planted in Nebraska on the first Arbor Day. Each state has a different date for Arbor Day that best suits the climate for planting trees.

Georgia Southern's campus environmental group SAGE, (Student Alliance for a Green Earth) will be volunteering at the festival events. This organization's mission is to improve environmetal awareness and responsibility by working with the GSU students, faculty, staff, and administration.

So this Saturday if you happen to be downtown check out all the fun activities and go plant a tree!