Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Holidays

The Council will not meet in December. Our next meeting is 1/19/2023 at the Bankhead National Forest office in Double Springs.

US Forest Service Press Release

U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree

For more information visit the U.S Capitol Christmas Tree Website, follow on Facebook and Instagram

As the holiday season approaches, many households are busy setting up the Christmas tree in their homes. Since 1970, the U.S. Forest Service has provided a tree to the U.S. Capitol harvested from a different national forest each year. This tree has become known as “The People’s Tree”, to reflect the nickname of the U.S House of Representatives, “The People’s House.”

For the third time in history, the National Forests of North Carolina is honored to provide the 2022 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree, having previously provided Fraser firs in 1974 and 1998. The theme for this year’s tree is “From the Mountains to the Sea” to celebrate the diversity of public lands within the state of North Carolina. This year’s tree is a 78-foot red spruce from the Pisgah National Forest affectionately named Ruby in reference to the scientific name of red spruce, Picea rubens.

Red spruce is an iconic tree species for southern Appalachia. As part of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree program, the U.S. Forest Service partnered with the National Forest Foundation to raise funds for a new state-of-the-art nursery to grow red spruce seedlings for reforestation efforts. Among the seedlings to be grown at the nursery, managed by the Southern Highlands Reserve, will be those from Ruby’s seeds to live on in the next generation of red spruce.

The tree was harvested on November 2 and hit the road for a 14-day long tour from the Mountains to the Sea and up to Washington, DC, making 17 stops in communities along the way. At the U.S. Capitol, the tree was decorated with thousands of ornaments hand made by the people of North Carolina. After the official lighting ceremony on November 29, Ruby the Red Spruce will bring holiday cheer and represent the State of North Carolina to those who visit her in Washington, DC. When the holidays are over, wood from Ruby will be returned to western North Carolina and used to make guitars and banjos by local musical instrument makers.