The Latin word "arbor" means tree. Arbor Day -- the last Friday in April -- is a day set aside for people to learn about trees and to plant trees in their communities. It had its start in Nebraska on April 10, 1872, and is celebrated in all 50 states and in many Canadian provinces.

J. Sterling Morton is the one who proposed a tree planting holiday, and on the very first Arbor Day, more than one million trees were planted in Nebraska for their beauty, for fuel and building materials and to serve as windbreaks to keep the soil from blowing away.

In recent years, as the effects of climatic change have become clearer and more pronounced, trees have taken on a new level of environmental importance. Above and beyond their many practical virtues, trees are vital to life. They sustain our soil, moderate our climate, provide dwelling places and food for wildlife, conserve our water, clean our air, cool our streets and homes, and smooth edges of our lives. Of perhaps even greater importance, they take in and use carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas.

Each time we plant a tree we give to the world a new source of beauty, shade, oxygen and habitat for creatures of many sizes. We plant trees to celebrate our hope for the future.

JIM GILBERT