Rutherford students, members of the new Shade Tree Committee and DPW workers planted 300 hundred trees in what is now called Rutherford’s Tree Nursery in Memorial Field on Arbor Day. Recently Rutherford joined 146 other New Jersey towns that are Tree City USA communities. Tree City USA, sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation, sent the trees to the borough. The first Arbor Day was celebrated in Nebraska on April 10, 1872, thanks to a resolution proposed by Nebraska City, resident J. Sterling Morton. Morton, a civic leader, agriculturist and former newspaper editor, urged Nebraskans to “set aside one day to plant trees, both forest and fruit.” The tree-planting holiday was so popular that by 1920, more than 45 states and U.S. territories an-nually celebrated Arbor Day. Today, Arbor Day is observed in all 50 states and in many countries around the world.