Project honors civic leader Bud English
ARCADIA, Wis. – High school seniors planted 100 five-foot white pines and other trees along windswept Fairfield Drive leading to the Arcadia High School. It was an Arbor Day project with trees provided by Ashley Furniture, the largest employer in the county. The project was in honor of Arcadia-born dentist Bud English, who died in August. Before planting the trees, the seniors were trained in long-term tree care. Trees have been an ongoing Ashley corporate give-back project. Over the years 6,000 trees valued at $100,000 have been planted by Ashley employees.
Earlier: R.I.P.: Bud English
Arbor Day
Arbor Day was founded by newspaper editor J. Sterling Morton in Nebraska City, Nebraska. On the first Arbor Day, April 10, 1872, an estimated 1 million trees were planted, By the 1920s, every U.S. state had set aside a date for observance, most on the third Friday of April. The customary observance is to plant a tree. Morton later was U.S. secretary of agriculture in the Grover Cleveland administration. He was a Democrat who ironically as secretary of agriculture opposed agrarianism. For Morton, conservationism came first.