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Update: New Date & Time for Tree Harvest Ceremony

Tree Harvest


MAD RIVER, Calif., October 22, 2021 – Due to poor weather and out of abundance of caution, the virtual ceremony to harvest the 2021 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree will be held tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 23 at 12 PM, instead of Sunday, Oct. 24. 

Increased rain and elevated wind conditions that could affect the safety of personnel and the crane equipment used to harvest the People’s Tree led to the decision by Forest leadership to shift the ceremony to 24 hours prior. 

The public can still view this significant milestone during a livestream of the ceremony available on the Six Rivers National Forest Facebook page, starting at 12 PM, Saturday, Oct. 23. 

The Facebook Live video will remain on the newsfeed to view at any time.  

Continue to monitor online at @uscapitolchristmastree on Facebook and Instagram, and @USCapitolTree on Twitter for the latest information. 

Kenworth T680 Next Generation Features Special Design for 2021 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Tour

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 | KIRKLAND, Wash. –  A special Kenworth T680 Next Generation, sporting a newly installed graphics wrap, will transport the 2021 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree from California to the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building for the tree-lighting ceremony in early December.

“Six Rivers, Many Peoples, One Tree” is this year’s tour theme and a logo of that message is prominently displayed on the T680 Next Gen roof. The driver and passenger side both display graphics of the U.S. Capitol Building, U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree decorated with lights, and a background of the sunset over the rolling hills of the Six Rivers National Forest. The words “U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree, Six Rivers National Forest, California to Washington D.C., are placed above the images.

This 2021 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree – an 84-foot tall White Fir nicknamed “Sugar Bear” – is scheduled to be harvested October 24 from the Six Rivers National Forest in California.

System Transport is the official designated carrier for the 2021 tour. The company will use its new Kenworth T680 Next Gen equipped with a 76-inch mid-roof sleeper to transport the special tree on its 3,300-mile route. The T680 Next Gen provides drivers with the most aerodynamic Kenworth truck ever, latest Kenworth SmartWheel®, new customizable 15-inch digital display, full forward LED lighting down the road, additional advanced driver assistance systems, and comfortable cab and sleeper. It marks the eighth consecutive year that a Kenworth truck will deliver “The People’s Tree.”

System Transport employees Bill Brunk, Jeremy Bellinger, Mike English, Terry Jefferson, Robert Lee and John Schnell were selected to drive the T680 Next Gen transporting the Tree. The driver team will receive support from System Transport employees Lonnie Epley, Joel Eggert and Sean Magee.
 
The company hauls all types of flatbed freight, primarily throughout the West Coast to the Midwest. System Transport maintains its headquarters in Cheney, Washington, with terminals in Denver and Phoenix; French Camp, Fresno and Bloomington, California; Caldwell, Idaho; Gary, Indiana; Olathe, Kansas; and Ennis, Texas.

Community celebrations are scheduled from Oct. 29 – Nov. 16 throughout California and across the U.S. en route to the U.S. Capitol. Smaller companion trees also will be provided to decorate offices inside of the U.S. Capitol Building and other sites throughout Washington, D.C., along with 15,000 handmade ornaments created by Californians.

Announcing the 2021 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Tour

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2021 US Capitol Christmas Tree tour

Each year, a different national forest provides a tree to light up the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol building for the holiday season. The Six Rivers National Forest in partnership with nonprofit partner Choose Outdoors will bring this special gift from California to Washington, D.C. for the 2021 holiday season with a series of special events in communities along the way.

Festivities will be hosted by local communities at parks and plazas, schools, memorials and monuments, stadiums, main streets and even a parade. Well-wishers will have a chance to sign the banners on the sides of the truck, learn more about the Six Rivers National Forest, purchase U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree merchandise and more. Beginning Oct.29, the tree’s journey can be tracked in real time online at capitoltreetracker.com hosted by Spireon, Inc. Festivities are free and open to the public for all to enjoy. The schedule of events includes:

Friday, Oct. 29
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Del Norte Visitor Center (1001 Front Street, Crescent City, CA 95531)
4:00 – 6:00 p.m. Eureka Waterfront (Madaket Square Boardwalk, D Street, Eureka, CA 95501)

Saturday, Oct. 30
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Willow Creek Mainstreet (CA Hwy-299, Willow Creek, CA 95573)
4:00 – 6:00 p.m. Fortuna River Lodge (1800 Riverwalk Drive, Fortuna, CA 955340)

Sunday, Oct. 31 
12:00 – 3:00 p.m. Pear Tree Shopping Center (504 East Perkins St, Ukiah, CA, 95540)

Monday, Nov. 1
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. Vallejo Waterfront Ferry Stop (289 Mare Island Way, Vallejo, CA 94590)

Tuesday, Nov. 2
3:00 – 6:00 p.m. Dixon May Fair (655 South 1st Street, Dixon, CA 95620)

Wednesday, Nov. 3
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. California State Capitol (1010 L Street, Sacramento, CA 95814)
5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Mother Lode Fairgrounds (220 Southgate Rd, Sonora, CA 95370)

Thursday, Nov. 4
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Downtown Mariposa (Hwy 140 between 9th and 10th Street, Mariposa, CA 95338)

Saturday, Nov. 6
8:30 – 10:30 a.m. Rose Bowl Stadium (1001 Rose Bowl Drive, Pasadena, CA 91103)
3:00 – 5:00 p.m. Redlands West Pearl Avenue (between Eureka and Orange Streets Redlands, CA 92374)

Tuesday, Nov. 9
10:00 – 11:00 a.m. Petrified Forest National Park (1 Park Road, Petrified Forest, AZ 86028)

Thursday, Nov. 11
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. New Mexico Veteran’s Memorial (1100 Louisiana Blvd SE #5009, Albuquerque, NM 87108)

Saturday, Nov. 13
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Downtown Fayetteville (Northwest Avenue & West Dickson Street, Fayetteville, AR 72701)
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Bass Pro Shops National Headquarters (1935 S Campbell Ave., Springfield, MO 65807

Tuesday, Nov. 16:
6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Williamsport Town Hall, 2 N Conococheague St., Williamsport, MD 21795

Friday, Nov. 19
Delivery to West Lawn, U.S. Capitol Building

*Subject to change. Monitor website at www.uscapitolchristmastree.com/calendar for the latest updates.

Safety of tour staff, event attendees and the tree are the top priority. Face coverings are required for all events and social distancing will be maintained. Along the way, we ask the public to be aware of the large truck’s huge blind spots, wide turns, and longer stopping distances on our roads so we can all arrive safely to our destinations.

Follow along online at www.uscapitolchristmastree.com and @uscapitolchristmastree on Facebook and Instagram.

U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Announces Essay Contest

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2021 USCCT LOGO

EUREKA, Calif., September 13, 2021— For more than 50 years, the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., has asked the USDA Forest Service to provide a tree to adorn the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol for the holiday season. This year, the Six Rivers National Forest will proudly provide the tree and select a local 5th grader to be named as the official youth tree lighter in a three-county-wide essay contest.

The youth tree lighter may have the opportunity to participate in the tree harvest ceremony, tree lighting ceremony and other local events. Events may be virtual or in-person, and any in-person events will occur in accordance with CDC guidelines.

The youth will be selected by a panel consisting of personnel from the USDA Forest Service, County Offices of Education and the Board of Supervisors from Del Norte, Humboldt, and Trinity counties, and by office of Representative Jared Huffman, based on the criteria below.

The competition is open to 5th grade students in Del Norte, Humboldt, and Trinity counties. Students are asked to compose an essay about the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree with the prompt, “What does the theme ‘Six Rivers, Many Peoples, One Tree’ mean to you?”

In addition to the essay, applicants may choose to include a one-page supporting attachment relating the theme to an aspect of science, technology, engineering, arts, and/or mathematics (STEAM) for an interdisciplinary approach.

Submissions will be evaluated on mechanics of grammar, spelling and construct, content, and STEAM integration. The submission should not exceed a 500-word essay with one additional page of illustration/supporting data – all electronic.

Students should submit their essays electronically to their respective County Office of Education (COE) office by Sept. 24.

Each Office of Education will submit their top five (5) entries to the U.S. Forest Service, and the winning submission will be selected and notified in mid-October.

All submissions must be accompanied by the consent form from a parent or guardian for use of the product as well as consent to appear in media. All participants may be recognized by the U.S. Forest Service.

Six Rivers, Six Questions: Meet Alyssa

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Alyssa is a fire prevention technician at the Lower Trinity Ranger District on the U.S. Forest Service – Six Rivers National Forest as well as the local Events Lead for the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree project. She comes from a proud U.S. Forest Service family and is expecting her first child this fall.

Six Rivers, Six Scientists

Redwood Sciences Lab

Behind California’s infamously arduous “Redwood Curtain” lies a research lab…

…on the Preston Forest Research Site, a wooded, 3-acre site on the Humboldt State University campus in Arcata, California. This lab is part of the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station and houses research hydrologists, geologists, wildlife and fisheries biologists, plant ecologists, biometricians, research technicians, and support personnel who are      conducting watershed, wildlife, and fisheries research applicable to the   Pacific Northwest from Alaska to California.

Let’s meet six Redwood Sciences Lab scientists:

Dr. Karen Pope is a Wildlife Biologist.  Her research interests specialize in applied research directed toward the conservation of amphibians and reptiles, especially in mountain environments. However, many of her projects also address key basic concepts in ecology like the role of ecosystem subsidy in supporting wildlife populations and how population dynamics are affected by pathogens.  

Dr. Bret Harvey is a Research Fish Biologist.  His research interests are relationships between stream fishes and habitat features such as depth, cover, sediment conditions, and barriers to fish movement; biotic interactions within stream food webs; and the dependence of these interactions on habitat, and the success and effects of introduced fishes in streams. 

Linda Long is a Wildlife Biologist who conducts her studies out of the Arcata lab.  She assists on station climate change research and localized needs (regional work).  The bulk of her research has been focused on ornithology, including Pacific Seabirds. 

Ted Weller is an Ecologist.  His research interests are developing quantitative methods for assessment of bat populations; mitigating impacts of wind energy development on populations of migratory bats; and seasonal ecology of bats in forests of northwestern California.

Elizabeth Keppeler is a Hydrologist who works primarily out of Fort Bragg, CA where she works on the Casper Creek Experimental Watershed where along with a team of researchers, she conducts studies evaluating the effects of timber management on streamflow, sedimentation, and erosion in the rainfall-dominated forested watersheds of the northern coast of California.

Dr. Joseph Wagenbrenner is a Research Hydrologist.  His research interests are understanding the complexity of hydrologic processes at various spatial and temporal scales; determining the effects that humans have on different components of the hydrologic cycle, understanding the effects of fire and other forest disturbances on hydrologic processes; and identifying the impacts of practices used to mitigate these effects. This work will help provide an understanding of the resiliency, function, and health of natural and human-impacted environments. 

What is Forest Service R&D and Who is PSW?

The USDA Forest Service Research and Development (FS R&D)   is the world’s largest forestry research organization. FS R&D conducts ecological and social science research to understand ecosystems, how humans influence those systems, and how to manage for sustained and     enhanced benefits.

FS R&D operates five Research Stations, the Forest Products Laboratory, and the International Institute of Tropical Forestry. It employs more than 500 scientists, as well as several hundred technical and support personnel located at 67 sites throughout the United States.

The Pacific Southwest Research Station represents FS R&D in the states of California and Hawaiʻi and the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands. The region has the lowest, driest desert in the country, the highest elevations within the 48 contiguous States, and the wettest tropical forests. It is home to an abundantly diverse array of native plants and animals and nearly half of the Nation’s threatened and endangered species. PSW scientists conduct a broad array of natural resources research to achieve our mission to “develop and communicate science needed to sustain forest ecosystems and their benefits to society.”

For Further Information, Contact:
Jacey Goddard
Public Affairs Specialist
USDA Forest Service
Pacific Southwest Research Station
Email
www.fs.fed.us/psw

Six Rivers, Six Questions: Meet LeRoy

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Meet LeRoy! LeRoy is a fish biologist on the Orleans, Ukonom and Lower Trinity Ranger District on the Six Rivers National Forest, as well as the Events Lead for the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree tour this fall. In this role, he coordinates with dozens of communities across California and the nation to plan engagements as the People’s Tree journeys to Washington, D.C. It takes “many peoples, one tree”!

2021 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Virtually Selected

2021 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree - Six Rivers National Forest

EUREKA, Calif., July 21, 2021— After a multi-month search covering hundreds of square acres and thousands of feet in elevation, the 2021 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree from the Six Rivers National Forest has been selected – “Sugar Bear.” Six candidate trees were identified and presented virtually to Architect of the Capitol staff, with each tree receiving unique nicknames connected to the state animal of California, the bear.

Taking top honors, “Sugar Bear,” an 84-foot white fir located within the Mad River Ranger District, will grace the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol this holiday season.

“Selecting a tree to adorn the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol comes with a unique set of challenges in any given year, but especially with this being the second year the search and selection has been conducted virtually,” said Jim Kaufmann, Director of Capitol Grounds and Arboretum at the Architect of the Capitol. “Thanks to drone footage, comprehensive photos, compelling narration, and detailed notes and measurements, we were able to select a majestic white fir that very well represents the Six Rivers National Forest and the great state of California.”

The People’s Tree will be harvested from the Mad River Ranger District, which was most recently impacted by the largest recorded wildfire in California history – the 2020 August Complex Fire. Nearly 160,000 acres, or a little over 50 percent of the total district, was destroyed and burned by fire associated with the August Complex last year.

“Given the recent challenges and hardships our community faced in 2020, we are honored the People’s Tree will be harvested from our district,” said Kristen Lark, district ranger for the Mad River Ranger District. “This tree signifies the fortitude and resilience of this community and we are excited to share in the joy and hope of this project as it makes its journey to Washington, D.C.”

The tree will be harvested in late October before making its journey throughout the state of California and cross-country to Washington, D.C., arriving at the U.S. Capitol in late November.

The Architect of the Capitol’s team will decorate the tree with thousands of handcrafted ornaments from the people of California. The tree will be lit in early December 2021 by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in as a time-honored tradition in its 51-year partnership with the U.S. Forest Service.

Non-profit project partner Choose Outdoors and a host of partners, sponsors, and volunteers are contributing funding and in-kind support of this project and its theme, “Six Rivers, Many Peoples, One Tree.”

“We could not be more grateful for our shared partnerships and engaged community partners and look forward to representing them on a national stage with the representation of this beautiful, local white fir tree,” said Ted O. McArthur, forest supervisor for the Six Rivers National Forest.

About the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree initiative is a 50-year tradition in which one of our 155 national forests provides a tree for the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol for the holiday season. The project is made possible with support from partners including non-profit Choose Outdoors along with cash and in-kind contributions from companies large and small as well as volunteers locally and across America.

Partners supporting the 2021 journey include Kenworth Truck Company, System Transport, ABC Sacramento, Spireon, Inc., Hale Truck and Trailer, Visit California, PG&E, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Alaska Airlines, Coast Central Credit Union, Great West Casualty Company, Truckload Carriers Association, Meritor, Inc., Mountain F. Enterprises, Inc., Society of American Foresters, Green Diamond, Mendocino and Humboldt Redwood Company, Sierra Pacific Industries, BT Metals, LexisNexis VitalChek Network, Inc., Bergco, The Forest Foundation, National Press Club, Humboldt Craft Spirits, Humboldt Marketplace, Bass Pro Shops, Chicobag, and more.

We invite you to follow the #USCapitolChristmasTree2021 project through one of our accounts:

  • Facebook: USCapitolChristmasTree
  • Twitter: @USCapitolTree
  • Instagram: @USCapitolChristmasTree
  • #ManyPeoplesOneTree

To learn more about the history of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree, please visit https://www.aoc.gov/what-we-do/programs-ceremonies/capitol-christmas-tree. 

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