Jim Kauffman (left), with the Architect of the Capitol office in Washington, D.C., and Tom Roland of the U.S. Forest Service, were in Wrangell area woods most of last week, looking at the finalists for this year's Capitol Christmas Tree.
Last week, Jim Kauffman, director of U.S. Capitol grounds and Arboretum at the Architect of the Capitol, selected one of seven Southeast Alaska finalists for the official 2024 Capitol Christmas Tree.
The winner is a secret, for now.
All seven finalists are located within the Wrangell Ranger District of the Tongass National Forest.
This means that when the tree is harvested in October - an operation that requires multiple cranes and an 82-foot-long trailer - it will be paraded through Wrangell's downtown to kick off its nearly 4,000-mile barge and highway trek from Wrangell to the Capitol West Lawn. The event will celebrate not just the tree, but the very town from which it is sourced.
Since it was announced in March that the Capitol Christmas Tree would be cut from the Tongass, the Wrangell district was always the premier choice for candidates. According to Brandon Raile, the Forest Service's public affairs lead for the effort, Wrangell's enthusiasm for the project, its local Forest Service staff and the involvement of the WCA made it an ideal district to supply the tree.
The Forest Service sought out spruce trees due to their natural advantages over cedars and hemlocks. Spruce trees tend to have the best 360-degree symmetry, are regularly tall enough to meet the Capitol's 30-foot minimum height requirement. Spruces also boast impressive crown density - or how close to one another the branches and needles are located.
When asked about qualifications for the chosen tree, Kauffman offered a swift response: "I want something that is awesome."
While domestic Christmas tree shopping may leave some room for error - you can always smush the patchy part of the tree up against your living room corner - the Capitol Christmas Tree's location in the center of the lawn facing the National Mall requires nothing short of perfection.
Tom Roland is the Forest Service official responsible for achieving this exact feat. Roland's team used air and ground lidar technology (laser-generated images) to map and provide computer-generated renderings of 13.5 million spruce trees, eventually weeding out all but seven candidates.
While difficult, identifying a tree is just the beginning. The tree will be harvested and shipped across the country in a two-week tour of the United States before arriving in Washington ahead of Thanksgiving.
Currently, the Forest Service is deciding between two methods for harvesting the tree. The first involves cutting the tree at the stump like a traditional Christmas tree and then rigging the bottom of the tree with a waterproof sealed bladder that pumps fresh water into the base. This option would only allow the tree to live for one to two weeks after its harvest.
Alternatively, the Forest Service could perform a root wad excavation. This would require digging up part of the tree's root system and feeding water into the tree via its roots. While the option would prolong the tree's life expectancy, it would introduce its own set of challenges.
The tree's transport trailer is 83 feet long and only eight feet wide - transporting the tree out of the forest with its rather wide root wad would be difficult.
Despite the Forest Service not yet deciding how to best harvest the tree, its route to Washington is well established. After the celebrations commemorating its departure from Wrangell, the tree will be loaded on a barge to Seattle, where it will be transferred to a 105-foot-long highway rig for its cross-country journey.
The so-called whistle stop tour will begin in Seattle before making its way through Idaho and into Salt Lake City, through Colorado and straight east to Washington. Once in the capital, the tree will be paraded along the National Mall in presidential motorcade fashion before the Architect of the Capitol cements it into the West Lawn.
Throughout its trip, the tree will make stops in to-be-announced cities. Forest Service and local law enforcement will provide the tree with 24-hour security.
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