Friday, April 30 was Arbor Day, a national day of recognition started by the father of a local (Chicagoland) hero: Joy Morton.
Many people are familiar with the name Morton, as well as a certain logo and its motto: When It Rains, It Pours.
![](http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c222/pbmcd/2010/2010%2005%2001%20Tree%20Scouts/smaller/whenitrains.png)
Joy owned Morton Salt, but he was also the founder of Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. His father, J. Sterling Morton, started Arbor Day (click here to read about the history of Arbor Day) in 1872 in Nebraska City, Nebraska because "Each generation takes the Earth as trustees."
Beyond being part of a grade school class that watched someone plant a tree in the school yard for Arbor Day, I've never participated in an Arbor Day celebration. Until yesterday.
One of my managers at work is a mom, and her youngest son is working on his Eagle Scout requirements, and his final requirement reads:
5.While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community. (The project should benefit an organization other than Boy Scouting.) The project plan must be approved by the organization benefiting from the effort, your Scoutmaster and troop committee, and the council or district before you start.
Two scouts in Matthew's 'pack' (if that's the right word) were working on their service project yesterday - planting trees along a corridor of Fox Valley Park District land. At this point, it's just a strip of land between some townhomes and other property - it is going to be developed into a walking/biking path that will connect the incredible Illinois Prairie Path system that runs throught the western suburbs, with the Joliet area.
The other scout handled the portion of the (future) path that runs north and south, and Matthew (and we, his helpers) handled the part that ran east-west. We thought we were going to plant 55 trees. Thankfully, it ended up being 37 trees. We arrived at 8 am, bright eyed and bushy tailed, tools in hand.
My boyfriend, with the tools I borrowed from work. :)
Headed over from parking spots to the rallying point.
The well marked project.
Waiting for tree delivery.
The pretty-well-empty corridor.
The future Eagle Scout and the trees being delivered.
Park District Employees explaining what they need.
Matthew getting ready to mark out the tree planting spots.
Lots of trees. Included: Oaks, Red Maples, Lindens, Tulip Trees, Serviceberries and... The Larch (like in Monty Python!)
Voice Over (and CAPTION:)
'EPISODE 12B'
'HOW TO RECOGNISE DIFFERENT TREES FROM QUITE A LONG WAY AWAY'
'NO. 1'
'THE LARCH'
Photo of a larch tree.
Voice Over The larch. The larch.
Marking future tree spots.
Trees set next to their spots.
My co-worker Scott (who is an Eagle Scout), starting to dig. He was dressed for sub-zero temperatures.
The start of the tree spot that I helped work on with my boyfriend.
The first tree we planted. (OK, the only tree we planted, but we dug a hole for a second, before we had to leave.)
Me, with the tree.
The second tree we worked on.
Starting the second hole.
Second hole ready for the tree (but we had to leave!)
Here's why it's hard to dig in Illinois. You can't see the rocks here, but isn't that a LOVELY vein of clay? (The tan stuff.)
We had to leave about an hour earlier than originally planned, but things looked a lot different than when we'd arrived!
HAPPY ARBOR DAY, AMERICA!