One of Humboldt’s favorite homegrown celebs, Sara Bareilles, posted a video to her social media last night sharing her excitement for the fact that Sugar Bear — the 84-foot white fir selected to be this year’s U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree — is from our neck of the woods. 

“I am convinced that Humboldt County is one of the most beautiful places on planet Earth and that’s why I am excited to share the news that Six Rivers National Forest (that’s us baby!) was selected to represent the US Forest Service by providing the 2021 US Capitol Christmas Tree!” Bareilles wrote in the post accompanying a video of herself amid the redwoods in Eureka’s Sequoia Park.

Sugar Bear will be sawed down today (Saturday, Oct. 24) at noon and you can watch the whole thing live on the Six Rivers National Forest U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Facebook Page and, of course, the Outpost will be sharing the momentous event to our page too. After the tree is cut it will be loaded onto a big rig that will haul it all the way to D.C., making stops in more than 20 towns along the way.

As Bareilles also points out in her video, you can follow the tree’s journey on capitoltreetracker.com. Sugar Bear’s first stop will be in Crescent City on Friday Oct. 29 from 9 a.m. to noon and it will then journey down to the Eureka later that day to be viewed at the Madaket Plaza from 4 to 6 p.m.

“A huge shout out to the Forest Service Members who have fought tirelessly to keep our communities safe and deal with devastating effects of forest fires and climate change and we are all so grateful to you for your service,” Bareilles says at the end of her video, adding “And check out these trees! Come on!”