Features

Congressional Christmas tree cut from Oregon’s forest

By Jeff Barnard The Associated Press
Saturday November 16, 2002

TOKETEE, Ore. — Eleven-year-old Will Allen watched with a mixture of pride and regret Thursday as his favorite climbing tree was carefully cut to serve as the congressional Christmas tree in Washington, D.C. 

“I was feeling happy, but kind of upset,” said Will, who played war, tag, hide-and-seek and swung from a tire suspended from the 70-foot-tall Douglas fir. 

The tree grew up among trailers that serve as temporary housing at the Toketee ranger station on the Umpqua National Forest. 

The mighty Douglas fir, protected by plastic shrink-wrap, will be trucked cross-country. It will make 49 stops in 10 states — Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Maryland — before arriving at the Capitol on Dec. 2. 

A lighting ceremony on Dec. 12 will see it awash in 10,000 lights and 6,000 ornaments handmade by Oregonians to represent the state — cutout cows, a covered wagon and a beaver in a Santa suit. 

The forest applied seven years ago to donate what is officially known as the Capitol Holiday Tree, but only got the nod last year to provide one of the first such trees from Oregon. 

Employees kept an eye out for a suitable tree as they did routine work on the 984,602 acres of the national forest located on the western slope of the Cascade Range. 

In the end, Capitol landscape architect Matthew Evans chose a tree growing right on the grounds of the Toketee ranger station. Timber staffer Dale Anderson said he spotted the tree one day during a quiet moment. 

“I was setting back in my office one day looking out the window and thought, ’Why not that tree?”’ said Anderson. “That tree needs to go because it’s in a play area and it’s starting to die on the inside from stress.” 

The Umpqua has 40 million trees big enough to be considered, but employees narrowed the selection to five, said forest spokeswoman Cheryl Walters. One burned in a forest fire last summer, so Evans had four to choose from last summer. 

“It was amazing to watch him work,” said Walters. “He looked up at it, walked all the way around it, picked off a couple needles and broke them in half and said, ’This is the one.” 

Douglas fir is named for 19th century Scottish naturalist David Douglas, who mistook it for a true fir. It is Oregon’s state tree, valued for its high strength as lumber. Oregon produces more Christmas trees than any other state, and most of them are Douglas fir. 

Most Douglas firs that grow in deep forest don’t end up as symmetrical as the Toketee tree, which had near-perfect branches down to the ground. 

This tree was planted as a seedling in 1974 in the yard behind a trailer that was home to the family of a Toketee employee. With no other trees nearby and plenty of sunlight, it grew straight, tall and full as children played, laughed and cried beneath its branches, said District Ranger Jim Ouimet. 

“There’s a sense of loss among some folks in the community here, but I think in the big picture it’s really a gain for the country,” said Ouimet. 

The choice was kept secret and guards were posted through a night of wind and rain that lashed the tree the night before the ceremony.