The Coeur d’Alene Nursery had some unusual guests Monday when students from Fernan Elementary School took a field trip to learn about how trees are grown.

The children were amazed to see so many seedlings in one place, and to learn how seeds are gathered from pine cones.

“All the trees and baby pine trees in the greenhouse were so cute and tiny,” said Jonnie McConnell, a third-grader. “It’s funny to think that that big tree started so small.”

Each year, the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree is cut down from one of the nation’s many national forests and taken to Washington, D.C. — a tradition that has been honored for more than 50 years. This year, the tree will be coming from the Payette National Forest in Idaho.

In light of the exciting news, the forest service thought it would be fun to include Idaho youths by letting them decorate pine cone ornaments for the tree.

So, Aram Eramian, manager of the U.S. Forest Service’s Coeur d’Alene Nursery, invited schools to decorate the cones and to tour the nursery.

“Anytime we can highlight any STEM career, we like to,” said Heather Mangini, a third-grade teacher at Fernan. “We love it anytime our kids can see real science being done by real scientists.”

The school groups toured the facility where seeds are extracted from pine cones, where trees get grafted and where seedlings grow in the greenhouses.

One greenhouse had a million seedlings in it.

Eramian got many questions from the eager minds at his nursery, wondering what different pieces of equipment were for and why the forest service uses certain processes.

He got to quiz the kids, too.

“What’s the state tree?” he asked.

“White pine,” a few kids shouted back.

“And what’s the tree with needles that turns yellow?”

“Western larch!”

Mangini was glad she brought her students to the nursery Monday. She’s not sure how soon her class will be able to learn about trees and life cycles, but the life sciences unit is in the spring.

“I’m excited because this is a real springboard for things we can do in our class,” she said, before climbing on the bus to go back to school. “We’ll definitely talk about what we learned when we decorate the pine cones.”

More students from Fernan Elementary will be touring the nursery today. Over the next few days, everyone will get to decorate a pine cone. The ornaments will be picked up by the forest service Friday and shipped to Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Capitol tree is an 80–foot Engelmann spruce and will be cut down Nov. 2. It is only the second U.S. Capitol tree from Idaho.

During its 2,000 mile journey to Washington, D.C., the tree will pass through Coeur d’Alene on Nov. 11. People can see it from 10 a.m. to noon at 525 E. Front Ave. by McEuen Park.