Nov
8
Why is it Arbor Day?
Filed Under Sunrise on KGMB9
Very few holidays are located where they ought to be.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who conceived the Declaration of Independence, and who died the same day on a July 4, both thought in 1776 that July 8 would be considered our independence day. The date could have been fixed on any of several dates during a protracted process of writing, voting, signing and printing.
The placement of Christmas and Easter was affected by the Roman church strategy of pre-empting pagan holidays, which had been timed to the winter solstice and spring equinox. Thanksgivings were held all over the calendar map until the government picked a spot on the calendar and made it stick. Other holidays were moved to Mondays for three-day weekends.
But Arbor Day is held on different days in different places because the objective is to plant more trees and shrubs and you might as well time it for the right weather. That’s why the mainland Arbor Day is in April, shower time in a temperate zone, but Hawaii marks it on the first Friday in November.
Jayme Grzebik of the University of Hawaii Extension Service, who comes on “Sunrise on KGMB9″ monthly to discuss planting topics and promote the Saturday morning educational sessions and freebies at the Urban Garden Center in Pearl City, gave me some educational materials that Hawaiian Electric Industries prints up. HEI promotes Arbor Day to be a good neighbor and, I suppose, to counter any neighborhood angst that arises when the electric companies have to trim trees to protect power lines.
The Plant Information Guide is excellent, detailing the origin, height, width, tree form, flower, fruit, growth rate, and sunlight, water and soil needs, of dozens of trees and shrubs. For example, the common fig tree (ficus carica) can grow to 25 feet, grows fast, likes full sun and does not require a great deal of water, but needs soil that drains well. The mountain apple (Syzygium malaccense) by contrast can grow from 16 to 40 feet, has only a moderate growth rate, prefers partial shade, and though it also prefers well-drained soil it requires abundant water.
The booklet specifies which plants are indigenous and which ones work well in small spaces. Sometimes they are the same — some truly kama’aina plants are slow growing, don’t get too big, and work well in areas that are sunny and dry. I learned this recently from interviewing a Big Island developer and a Forest Service lady who are working together on an experiment to see how best to regrow dryland forests. One of the keys is patience because it can take a century before such trees become very large, yet because they’re meant for the habitat they don’t require a lot of expensive watering.
The UH Extension Service has a corps of volunteers who propagate these trees and shrubs to give away to you, with all the instruction you need to make a success of it. Some of the tricks are already well-known to people with some experience in growing, or a good dose of common sense. For example, cutting a tree back is usually very good for it. And if you want to know what to grow on your property, walk around the neighborhood and simply observe which kinds of trees seem to be doing well nearby.
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