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| Homestead Magazine March 2009: Where every day is Arbor Day |
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By Dean Houghton
Make a trip to Nebraska City, a little town in southeast Nebraska located in rich, rolling hills above the Missouri River, and you will find a man who will get you fired up about trees. His name is J. Sterling Morton, who served as Secretary of Agriculture under President Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s, and he will tell you that "the cultivation
of trees is the cultivation of the good, the beautiful, and the ennobling in man." To be accurate, it is a hologram of Morton that will tell you this, since he died back in 1902,
but he still reaches thousands of visitors as his spirit is projected in the Woodland Pavilion at Arbor Day Farm, a place devoted to inspiring folks to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. Arbor Day Farm and the Lied Lodge and Conference Center are located on 260 acres that were once
part of Morton’s original estate. Owned and
operated by the Arbor Day Foundation, all
proceeds from Lied Lodge and Arbor Day
Farm are returned to the foundation to spread
J. Sterling Morton's mantra: Plant trees!
Tree planters' holiday. Morton is the founder
of Arbor Day, a tree planting holiday he first
proposed at an 1872 meeting of the Nebraska
State Board of Agriculture. Prizes were offered
to counties and individuals for properly
planting the largest number of trees, and more
than a million trees were planted in Nebraska
on the first Arbor Day. As editor of the state's
first newspaper, Morton advocated the idea of
planting trees. His Arbor Day celebration was
unique, he insisted, offering a gift that could
only be appreciated by generations to come.
"Other holidays repose upon the past; Arbor
Day proposes for the future," he wrote.
Today, Arbor Day is celebrated in every
state in the United States, and in some other
countries around the world. National Arbor
Day is set for the last Friday in April, but
some states set their own date to match their
environment—Arbor Day is celebrated in
January in Florida, but not until May in
Alaska. And it continues to grow. The Arbor
Day Foundation provides nearly 10 million
tree seedlings each year.
Smaller acreages are home to many of the seedlings sent out by the foundation. In fact, the organization has a program specifically designed to help the nation's 6 million landowners who care for properties ranging in size from one to about 10 acres. It's called Backyard Woods, a program that can help landowners enhance the scenery in their backyard woods, provide superb habitat for wildlife, or even utilize their land as an extra source of income. The foundation offers a 44-page guide
that helps landowners learn how to develop
a master plan, protect property from wildfire, plant properly, and much more. You can visit the informative Arbor Day Foundation Web
site (www.arborday.org) for details on how to
order, or to download a version of the guide.
While the Arbor Day Foundation continues
to reach out with Morton's message, Arbor
Day Farm and its various attractions offer
a unique destination where visitors can be
immersed in all kinds of ways that trees improve
the environment and make life better.
The green approach. Overnight visitors to Arbor Day Farm can stay at the Lied Lodge and Conference Center, a sprawling and magnificent facility built primarily of wood and
stone. A grand entryway features 35-foot-tall
Douglas fir columns and an equally impressive
stone fireplace. A tapestry hanging over
the front of the fireplace urges visitors, in
17 different languages, to plant trees.
Just to the north of Lied Lodge is a nine-acre
hazelnut research center, a unique woody
perennial field where from Rutgers University
and University of Nebraska scientists look to boost yields while improving agroforestry
practices. In 2006, the Lied Greenhouse produced
the world’s largest number of hazelnut
seedlings. The lodge also features a number
of sustainable and green lodging practices.
They range from a biomass-based heating and
cooling system fueled by firewood, to locally
grown fruits, vegetables, and wines that are
served in the Timber Dining Room.
Tree experience. It's just a short walk from Lied Lodge to the farm's Tree Adventure. It begins in the Woodland Pavilion, where you meet the hologram of Mr. Morton, and learn about trees and the natural world in a series of innovative displays and demonstrations.
Visitors can then hike the Tree House Trail,
where shaded walkways offer a personal look
at the sights, sounds, and fragrances of the
forest. The Canopy Tree House offers visitors
the chance to climb 50 feet high to get a bird’s-eye view of the forest. An Exploratory
Trail takes visitors streamside across timber
bridges and peaceful forest pathways.
While Arbor Day Farm offers attractions
for all ages, there’s a focus on kids. "There's
a growing disconnect between kids and nature,"
says Beverly Todd, director of the Tree
Adventure. "We want to introduce them to a
positive experience with the outdoors. These
kids are the next generation of tree planters."
Exploring nature is the goal of a collaborative
project between the Arbor Day Foundation and Dimensions Educational Research Foundation. Discussions led to the creation of the nation's
first Nature Explore Classroom at the
Tree Adventure, a place filled with climbing
structures, musical instruments made
of natural materials, wooden blocks, small
waterways, and natural materials for building
and creating art. "We want children to have
inspiring nature experiences," Todd says.
These model outdoor classrooms are being
replicated all across the nation.
Families can choose from a variety of festivities
during the fall. Arbor Day Farm features
a pumpkin patch where visitors can
spend an afternoon while they pick their perfect
pumpkin. And then there are the apples.
Thousands of visitors come to pick apples
from the Arbor Day Farm commercial orchard,
and to sample apples from its heirloom
selections. The farm has 180 antique apple
trees that represent 165 varieties—a living
record of some of the nation’s finest apples.
Nebraska City's AppleJack festival, traditionally
held the third weekend in September, highlights the apple harvest. The 2008 version was particularly festive, as visitors enjoyed a bumper apple crop—"our best in
10 year," according to the farm's orchard
manager, Erik Olson. Guests enjoyed homemade
apple pie, caramel apples, apple cider,
and apple-chicken-salad sandwiches at the
farm's Pie Garden cafe. (The hot apple pie
with a scoop of ice cream and a shot of caramel
at the Pie Garden is a meal in itself.)
Some visitors took advantage of the Discovery
Ride, a one-hour journey under a giant
red oak leaf canopy as they learned about
nature while being towed by tractor through
apple orchards and vineyards. They also visited
the Apple House, a majestic white barn
surrounded by the commercial and heirloom
apple orchards, that houses "Rube," the
home-grown mechanical marvel that washes,
polishes, and sizes the fall apple harvest.
Guests may come for the festivals, but
they can't help but learn from the practical
environmental stewardship that
is demonstrated at Arbor Day Farm.
For example, living trees and shrubs
have been used to stabilize the banks of
the South Table Creek that runs through the
property. These stream-bank protection techniques
help stabilize slopes, improve infiltration,
filter runoff, and improve wildlife habitat
while enhancing aesthetics.
Farmstead and field windbreaks also
are on display. Windbreaks not only slow
the wind, they also help fields retain moisture
while protecting topsoil and serving as
corridors for wildlife. And visitors can view
the Arbor Day Farm vineyards, which allow
local production of such famous wines as
Chambourcin and DeChaunac.
It's enough to make a homesteader want to
grab a shovel and plant a tree, which is just
exactly what J. Sterling Morton would recommend.
It's an extraordinary deed that can be
performed by ordinary folks, according to
Morton’s conservation colleague, Aldo Leopold.
"Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved
for gods and poets," Leopold wrote. "To plant
a pine, one need only to own a shovel."
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