Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree came from threatened Colorado national forest lands

Every year the Capitol Christmas Tree is set on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol and stands as a majestic symbol of America’s national forests.  This year’s tree — a towering, 55-foot-tall, 25-foot-wide Engelmann spruce — was selected from western Colorado’s Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison (GMUG) National Forest lands, an impressive expanse of […]

Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: Our Capitol Christmas Tree makes me wish for healthy Colorado forests

The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree, a 55-foot-tall Engelmann spruce, was cut Nov. 5 on national forest land near Montrose and is being trucked across the country to Washington, D.C., where it will be set up and decorated as the nation’s Christmas tree. I saw the Capitol Christmas Tree on U.S. 50 the other day as […]

Posted inColoradans, News, Outdoors

The Colorado-grown Capitol Christmas Tree is a symbol of unity in a year of turmoil

OURAY — When it began to grow, the world was in turmoil. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had started his second term. Eight million people were out of work, some were starving. Roosevelt inherited a country mired in the worst economic crisis in U.S. history — The Great Depression. The seedling grew, its branches reaching toward […]