Arbor Day 2026

About Arbor Day

Arbor Day falls on the last Friday of April in the United States, a holiday built around one simple, hopeful act: planting a tree. First organized in Nebraska in 1872, the day spread across the country and inspired similar observances worldwide, from Korea to Israel to Brazil.

The holiday's genius is its practicality. Trees shade streets, cut energy bills, clean the air, feed pollinators, and raise property values, and they do it for generations. Arbor Day celebrations turn those benefits into action through school plantings, city giveaways of free saplings, park cleanups, and neighborhood greening projects.

Communities often hold ceremonies honoring people who have improved local green spaces, and children learn how a sapling becomes a canopy. Even a single backyard planting counts. As the old saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, and the second best time is Arbor Day.

When is Arbor Day?

History of Arbor Day

Arbor Day was the brainchild of J. Sterling Morton, a Nebraska newspaper editor and nature lover who urged settlers on the treeless Great Plains to plant trees for shade, windbreaks, and fuel. The first Arbor Day took place in Nebraska on April 10, 1872, with an estimated one million trees planted. Schools embraced the idea, and by the 1880s the day had spread to other states, many of which made it a legal holiday. In 1970 President Richard Nixon proclaimed National Arbor Day on the last Friday in April, cementing the date, and the National Arbor Day Foundation now promotes tree planting around the world.

How to Celebrate Arbor Day

• ✦ Plant a tree suited to your climate in your yard, school, or a community space.
• ✦ Join a local park cleanup or volunteer with a tree planting nonprofit.
• ✦ Pick up free saplings at city giveaways and learn how to care for young trees.
• ✦ Teach kids to identify native trees on a neighborhood walk.