Arbor Day celebration scheduled for April 22 at the Lodgepole Valley Youth Camp; registration at 7 a.m., program begins at 8 a.m.

SIDNEY -- Sidney Mayor Brad Sherman signed the Arbor Day Proclamation for the city Tuesday night.

The action took place in the 5:30 p.m. city council meeting Tuesday. Tom Von Seggern, Sidney's Parks, Forestry and Cemetery superintendent, said the City has been recognized as a Tree City USA for the past 37 years.

Arbor Day started when J. Sterling Morton proposed to the Nebraska Board of Agriculture in 1872 that a day be set aside for planting trees. That day, Arbor Day, was first observed with the planting of more than a million trees.

One of the criteria to be recognized as a Tree City USA is to have a proclamation signed and read by the mayor each year. A Tree City USA designation also requires a Tree Board, community ordinance, forestry program with an annual budget of at least $2 per capita and an Arbor Day Observance and Proclamation.

Sidney hosts an annual tree give-away as part of an Arbor Day celebration. This year's celebration will be 8 a.m. Saturday, April 22, at the Lodgepole Valley Youth Camp. Nebraska forester Crissie Land will be the guest speaker at the event.