Call it Operation Celebrating Our Great Outdoors. The 2012 Capitol Christmas tree will not only be cut from the White River National Forest, but will be decorated with 5,000 outdoor ornaments made by kids from throughout Colorado.

That will include ornaments from students at Hotchkiss K-8 and the North Fork Community Montessori School. The latter will finish their ornaments this week. Hotchkiss second, third and fourth graders, totaling about 120 students, completed theirs last week. Both schools will deliver their ornaments to the Paonia Ranger Station by Oct. 1, which will deliver the ornaments to the Blanco Ranger District in Meeker by Oct. 5 for final delivery to Washington, D.C.

The Colorado Christmas tree will be displayed on the lawn of the Capitol. The Forest Service in Colorado will also provide several smaller companion trees to decorate offices in the D.C. area. Those trees will be decorated with 1,000 indoor ornaments.

Dale Jackson, retired art teacher for Hotchkiss K-8, came up with the idea to show scenes of Colorado outdoor recreation and wildlife. The ornaments had to be nine to 12 inches in size, weigh less than one-half pound, be durable and weatherproof, decorated on both sides with a large, relatively simple design and visible from 25 to 70 feet.

The Hotchkiss students show diverse outdoor activities such as fishing, boating, hunting, skiing, camping, hiking and four-wheeling. The wildlife shown includes moose, bear, eagles and wolves.

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