by Martin J. Smouse (Author) Each year in April, my sixth-grade class was guided by a representative of the city of Cape Canaveral, Florida, to go to a preselected location to plant a tree. It was fun and exciting to think that we were planting a tree to help the environment and add a beautiful, living green tree to the city of Cape Canaveral's landscape. "But why do you plant trees on Arbor Day, Mr. Smouse?" was the question I got time after time. The sad part was, I didn't have an answer for them. I didn't know myself. That is how Arbor Day came about-the book, that is. After a couple of years of hearing that question and not knowing the answer, I had to do a little research to find out the origins of Arbor Day.