Plant a Tree for Arbor Day

Before there was Earth Day, there was Arbor Day. In 1872, Arbor Day was established in Nebraska by agriculturist Julius Sterling Morton, who believed that trees were important asset for any region. Amazingly, over 1,000,000 trees were said to have been planted during that first celebration. Since the nineteenth century, Arbor Day has become a national holiday (now celebrated on the last Friday in April) and has even spread to other countries around the world. Today, concerns about global warming give us more reason than ever to celebrate and promote trees, since healthy forests are instrumental in processing greenhouse gasses and maintaining a healthy temperature for the planet. Of course, the most popular method of celebrating Arbor Day is by planting your own trees. If you've got some yard to spare, Peaceful Valley has an excellent selection of organic tree stock, including many fruit- and nut-bearing varieties (although unfortunately their selection is much, much better in the late summer and fall). If you don't have that kind of space or don't feel like getting your hands dirty, the environmental benefits of tree planting can still be yours through the Be Green website, which allows customers to have trees planted at ecologically sensitive sites, as gifts for a variety of occasions from Mothers' Day to weddings. It's never too late to plant a tree, but if you celebrated Arbor Day this year you're in good company. Here's a slideshow of celebrities joining in (including the image above) by way of the Huffington Post.

Less Mail, More Trees

Environmental practices don’t have to be complicated to be sustainable. One important movement is towards simplification, easing the number of things we have to do on any given day, slowing down, and stopping the move towards multi-tasking that is so pervasive in our society. Despite the shift to digital communications and marketing, people’s mailboxes are still crammed with catalogues, solicitations, and paper that, if we’re lucky, usually finds it way into the recycling bin. But wouldn’t it be more sustainable to end the whole process? Less paper, less waste, more time spent on things that matter.

Mail Stopper is a service that encourages environmentalism by helping people eliminate junk mail. With access to over 6,500 mailing lists, the company works to make sure your household is no longer expecting the average of five unwanted glossy catalogues and ten sales and service direct mailings per week. For people who aren’t ready to give up all their catalogues and charitable donation requests, Mail Stopper sets up a list to target what you want and eliminate what you don’t need. Although it’s possible, manually removing yourself from mailing lists takes time and energy. For $20 per year, Mail Stopper sets up a custom selection service and does monthly monitoring of direct mailing lists, making sure your name and address remain private. Distinguishing itself from traditional junk mail services, Mail Stoppper works to replenish the environment by planting five trees for every new member who joins. More than eliminating paper waste, MailStopper helps support important environmental causes that make a difference in the world as well as your mailbox: their donations go to Trees for the Future, American Forests, and Sustainable Harvest, groups with longstanding reputations for direct work on reforestation, sustainable harvesting, and rainforest conservation. Mail Stopper: https://mailstopper.tonic.com/ American Forests: http://www.americanforests.org/

Trees for the Future: http://www.treesftf.org/ Sustainable Harvest: http://www.sustainableharvest.org/