Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
It was a pretty typical harvest-ready Douglas fir tree standing along Swamp Mountain Road, southeast of Cascadia State Park, Wednesday morning but the activity around it wasn’t a typical logging operation.
A 70-ton crane stood next to the tree with a trucker’s tie-down strap hooking the trunk to the crane. A RAM Trucking semi tractor hitched to a long trailer with an “Oversize Load” sign on the end was parked just below on the road while a worker with a chainsaw lopped the lower branches off the tree from a bucket truck.
When all was ready, Tim Miller of All-Aspects Tree Service revved up his chainsaw and moved to the foot of the 28-inch diameter trunk. He and his partner, Dave Gillott, carefully cut the base and the crane lifted the tree off the ground and gently lowered it to a horizontal position. The 115-foot truck and trailer backed under the tree and the process of setting it on a specially constructed frame began, preparing it for a six-day trip to Kansas City, Mo.
A month from now the 100-foot Douglas fir from Cascadia will stand in Crown Center, an 85-acre high-end shopping, hotel, business and residential complex on the southern end of downtown Kansas City, as the Mayor’s Christmas Tree.
The tree was cut just after daybreak Wednesday, Oct. 24, in the Swamp Mountain Forest in an elaborate operation involving the 108-foot crane, provided by Mike Adams Consruction, and the specially built trailer that is hauling the tree to Kansas City.
Milt Moran, director of sales and logging operations for Cascade Timber Consulting, and Dale Middlestadt, vice president of RAM Trucking, supervised the operation, which took about three hours.
The tree will be decorated with 7,200 white lights and will be lit on Nov. 23 at the center, which is owned by Hallmark Cards Inc. A crowd of 5,000 to 6,000 people is expected for the tree lighting ceremony.
The tree represents the Mayor’s Christmas Tree Fund, which last year provided holiday joy for 33,000 of Kansas City’s less fortunate. Families received toys and food from $408,000 in ornament sales and cash contributions.
When the 8,800-pound tree is taken down on Jan. 1, it will be shipped to a mill and cut into commemorative ornaments that will be sold to benefit the fund.
Last year the Mayor’s Tree Association cooperated with the Marine Corps in distributing more than 20,000 toys through Toys for Tots and erected two Santa Wonderlands in Kansas City.
This is Cascade Timber Consulting’s first year to supply the tree, but Middlestadt said this is his 23rd year of involvement with the program.
“This is a good deal,” he said.
The trees were supplied by Willamette Industries, for which Middlestadt worked as manager of truck plant operations for the Portland office. It was taken over by Weyerhaeuser, which bowed out after last year, he said.
Moran said CTC is delighted to take over.
“We’re happy to jump in to do this project,” he said. “We think it’s a pretty neat deal because it’s a charity donation from CTC.”
He said two Hallmark representatives made a trip to Sweet Home last June to scout trees with CTC representatives. They chose this year’s tree and next year’s, which stands close by.
Moran said what Hallmark wants is a tall, straight trunk and a well-developed top on the tree. Lower branches may be damaged on the trip to Kansas City, but CTC has three pickup truck loads of branches that it cut two weeks ago, which will be sent along with the tree to Kansas City. Hallmark will use brackets to attach those branches to the lower parts of the tree to fill it out down to the ground level.
A city Web site boasts that the tree is taller than those at the White House or Rockefeller Center.
The tree was treated with a moisture-retention agent the day before it was cut to help it stay fresh longer.
“There’s definitely a learning curve in how to haul a Christmas tree,” Middlestadt said as workers used ropes to wrap the loose branches after the tree was nestled in the frame built to hold it on the trailer. He also hauls trees every year to Pioneer Square in Portland.
He said the 94-foot trailer he uses is left over from the “Willamette Industry days” Plywood panels will be installed at the front of the trailer and the extra boughs will be packed in, he said. Then the whole load will be tarped for the trip to Kansas City.
Since the trailer is a long load, it can only be towed during the day, which will make the trip last about 3 1/2 days if there’s no snow.
Middlestadt said the journey is taking the tree through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri.
“We avoid Utah because it’s just a bear with the permits there,” he said.
The CTC tree was fitting onto the trailer fairly well on Wednesday.
“This tree is less brittle than the last couple,” Middlestadt said.
“That’s because it’s a CTC tree,” Moran joked.