National Trust and Ministry of Environment officials celebrated the first Arbour Day in the Cayman Islands Friday at the Mission House with the planting of two native Whitewood trees.
“This is the first Arbour Day for the National Trust,” said National Trust marketing manager Nasaria Budal. “It is an added event to our annual Earth Month celebrations, but particularly special as we hope to use the event as a platform to promote awareness around our native trees; each year we will focus on a different tree.”
She said the Whitewood tree was chosen for this year’s tree planting “because it is so closely tied to our local heritage – the trunk of Whitewood trees was often used to make Cayman Catboats and schooners, and tree limbs were fashioned into slingshots by young children”.
The Ministry of Environment donated one of the trees, and Caribbean Blooms worked closely with the National Trust to source the locally grown tree from the Trust’s Colliers Wilderness Reserve in East End.
The trees were planted in the backyard of the historic Mission House in Bodden Town. The surrounding garden is a traditional Caymanian sand yard with ornamental and fruit trees, as well as medicinal herbs like mint and fever grass.
Arbour Day began in Nebraska City, Nebraska, in 1872 when J. Sterling Morton and his wife, who were lovers of nature, proposed a tree-planting holiday. That year, it is estimated that Nebraskans planted one million trees. It is celebrated around the world today on varying dates due to local seasons and species of trees chosen.
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