Editing Arbor Day (section)

===McCreight and Theodore Roosevelt===
Beginning in 1906, [[Pennsylvania]] conservationist [[Major Israel McCreight]] of [[DuBois, Pennsylvania]], argued that President [[Theodore Roosevelt]]'s conservation speeches were limited to businessmen in the lumber industry and recommended a campaign of youth education and a national policy on conservation education.<ref>M.I. McCreight, Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation Why: A Thirty-Four Year Moratorium on Unpublished Records (1940), Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, at p.12, Hereinafter cited "Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation Why".</ref> McCreight urged Roosevelt to make a public statement to school children about trees and the destruction of American forests.  Conservationist [[Gifford Pinchot]], Chief of the [[United States Forest Service]], embraced McCreight's recommendations and asked the President to speak to the public school children of the United States about conservation. On April 15, 1907, Roosevelt issued an "Arbor Day Proclamation to the School Children of the United States"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oWgjAQAAIAAJ&q=theodore+roosevelt+proclamation+to+school+children+1906+1907&pg=RA4-PA9|title=Report|first=West Virginia State Board of|last=Agriculture|date=Jul 17, 1906|access-date=Jul 17, 2020|via=Google Books}}</ref> about the importance of trees and that forestry deserves to be taught in U.S. schools. Pinchot wrote McCreight, "we shall all be indebted to you for having made the suggestion."<ref>"Theodore Roosevelt and Conservation Why"</ref>