Just as the US Capitol Christmas Tree was trucking across the country from northern California to Washington DC to light up the West Lawn of the US Capitol building, another holiday tree was making its way by land and by sea to the state capitol of Alaska.

In what has become a uniquely Alaskan tradition, members of the USDA Forest Service, local tribal leaders, the Ketchikan school district, and the US Coast Guard all worked together to send a 14-foot lodgepole pine some 200 miles and install it on the columned veranda of the governor’s mansion in Juneau, decorated with ornaments made by school kids.

The Together Tree has come to symbolize community and collaboration among the many different people living across the frontier state. Now in its fifth year, the effort was first called the “Woosh.ji.cheen” project, a word that means ‘working together’ in the native Tlingit language.

“I personally appreciate the concept of the Together Tree because I feel that it’s symbolic of the diversity of people and traditions across all of southeast Alaska,” said Wrangell District Ranger Clint Kolarich. “At the same time, it focuses our diversity around one thing we all have in common, and that’s the land and water that sustain us all.”

This year’s tree was selected and harvested on Etolin Island by employees of the Wrangell Ranger District. The sparsely inhabited, forested island, located in between Wrangell and Prince of Wales Islands, is part of the 16.7-million-acre Tongass National Forest. Each year, selection of the Together Tree has alternated between ranger districts.

Since the Wrangell district selected the tree, the Ketchikan Misty Fjords district worked with schools to produce the decorations. Forest Service employees cut and drilled several hundred wood cookies— thin slices of a tree trunk—that students decorated to hang as ornaments. In total, students from Point Higgins Elementary, Fawn Mountain Elementary, Tongass School of Arts and Sciences, and the Ketchikan Charter School crafted about 300 unique decorations.

Point Higgins Elementary School teacher Katrina Monta said her second-grade students “really enjoyed the glitter,” telling her, “We hope our ornaments add a bit of sparkle!”

“To see the imaginations of our youth displayed so artfully in these ornaments, and the wide variety of creativity and festive style shown, was a truly wonderous experience to behold,” said Jon Hyde, a district employee who helped coordinate with the schools.

When the tree arrived at Wrangell it was greeted by members of the Wrangell Cooperative Association, also known as the Naanyaa.aayí, the Alaska Natives from whose ancestral homeland the Together Tree originated.

On the morning of November 18, a small crowd gathered in front of the Chief Shakes Tribal House on Shakes Island in Wrangell’s Inner Harbor to observe a tribal blessing. Dressed in ceremonial clothes, carrying painted drums, and waving cedar fronds, Wrangell Cooperative Association Council member Lu Knapp and Appointed Secretary Virginia Oliver, who also teaches Tlingit at Wrangell High School, led the group in a traditional song to send the tree on its long voyage to Juneau.

“It’s such a prestigious thing, I think, that it’s going to the governor’s mansion and it’s from Wrangell,” Virginia Oliver told a local radio station. “So we just wanted to turn out and show a good showing for it and let the tree go.”

After the blessing, the US Coast Guard transported the tree on the buoy tender Elderberry to its final destination.

“The crew and I were extremely honored to have been a part of this very important holiday mission,” said Senior Chief Petty Officer Garrett Kravitz, officer-in charge, Coast Guard Cutter Elderberry. “Delivering this year’s Together Tree to Juneau reinforces the bond the Coast Guard shares with our local, state, tribal and federal partners and highlights the importance teamwork plays in serving and safeguarding Alaskan residents and communities.”

The Together Tree made it to Juneau in time for the annual open house at the governor’s mansion, where it will be on display, with 300 glittery wood cookies, for the remainder of the holiday season.