Lincoln logger provides state capital with a Christmas Tree

When the Montana Logging Association needed to find a 30-foot Christmas Tree for the Montana State Capital this year, they turned to Lincoln-based logger Wayne Sherrill for help.

Sherrill, who said he's been a member of the MLA for about 20 years, found the perfect Douglas on the McDonald Family Ranch near Canyon Creek, where he and his sons, Jared and Jesse, have spent much of the year working on logging and thinning projects.

"I asked the landowner if it'd be alright and she was really thrilled to have us do that," Sherrill said.

Accompanied by MLA Safety officer Bryan Lorengo, they scouted around for a while to find the right tree. Sherrill said they kind of lucked out in finding a tree that had grown on a sparsely covered hillside, which allow it to fill out with a good shape. He said many of the trees in the area grow so thickly together that they tend to look kind of spindly, with branches only growing at canopy level.

"It was on some fairly steep ground but with that clipper (Jesse) was able to get right up to it and not disturb any limbs or anything," Sherrill said.

He said they moved it about a quarter of a mile down to the road, where Lorengo waited with a trailer and special notched sawhorses that cradled the tree without damaging the limbs.

According to MTN News, a 10-persn crew at the capitol building put the tree up in the rotunda Friday, and spent the day decorating it for the holiday.

For Sherrill, finding and harvesting the tree was also a chance to help highlight his profession and joked that it shows loggers aren't the bad guys some people make them out to be.

"It gives the logging industry a little recognition in that state," he said.