Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park, California
© Orbon Alija/Getty Image
Warm light through an ancient forest. Arbor Day
On this last Friday of April, we're celebrating the importance of planting and preserving trees. The history of this day—Arbor Day—can be traced back to Nebraska in the early 1870s when a journalist, Julius Sterling Morton, editor of the Nebraska City News, used his public platform to highlight the ecological importance of trees. In 1872, he proposed a day for Nebraskans to plant trees, and thus, Arbor Day came into existence.
The giant sequoia, seen here, is an embodiment of the significance of trees. According to the US National Park Service, geological evidence shows that sequoias have one of the oldest lineages of any living thing on earth. Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park, pictured here, has hundreds of sequoias that can be as ancient as 3,500 years old.
Related Images
Bavarian Forest wine cellar, Germany
Statue of Robert Burns in the Birks of Aberfeldy, Perth and Kinross, Scotland
Virgin River in Zion National Park, Utah, USA
Nant Gwynant valley, Snowdonia National Park, Gwynedd.
Trees in Wychwood Forest near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
Cypress trees in autumn, Georgia, USA
Thuringian Forest in autumn with Wartburg Castle, Germany
Waterfall on the Rio Arazas in Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, Pyrenees, Spain
Today on Bing
Northern gannets on Great Saltee Island, Ireland
