UPDATE, 4:55 p.m.: It’s finally happening. The felling of Sugar Bear is underway. Thank you for sacrificing yourself, Sugar.

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UPDATE, 2:35 p.m.: At about 1:30 p.m. the U.S. Forest Service moved forward with the ceremony portion of today’s event, a video of which is posted above.

Multiple people spoke during the ceremony, including Del Norte fifth-grader Michael Maveris — selected as this year’s youth tree lighter — who read the essay that won him the trip to D.C to be a part of this year’s tree lighting. Cheryl Moon of the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria closed out the ceremony with a blessing.

The felling of Sugar Bear, however, has been pushed back again. Samantha Reho of the U.S. Forest Service said during the video that weather conditions have worsened and the tree will now be felled “in the next few hours or so.”

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ORIGINAL POST:

It is time! Well, it’s almost time, actually.

Today is the the day that Sugar Bear — the majestic 84-foot-tall white fir from the Six Rivers National Forest — will be sawed down and strapped to a big rig to travel across the country and fulfill its destiny of serving as this year’s U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree.

Originally scheduled to be live streamed today at noon, the cutting of Sugar Bear is now scheduled to happen sometime within the next couple of hours, due to wet weather and muddy conditions, the U.S. Forest Service reports.

“The weather has not been ideal here in Eureka for felling a Christmas tree” Samantha Reho, spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service said in a video posted to the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Facebook Page at about noon today. “We want to do it safely and in conjunction with all the right protocols to make sure our personnel are safe. So we will be starting the ceremony for the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree sometime within the next two hours.”

The Outpost will keep checking and post updates here as they become available.

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