The federal government may be shut down, but Silver Belle is on a tight schedule for her cross-country road trip from the forest of Nevada to the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol.

Splayed out horizontally in a partly transparent mega-truck and adorned with colorful ornaments, each honoring the state’s iconic natural places, the hefty 53-foot-tall red fir tree was the sight to see outside the Las Vegas Civic Center on Tuesday. The event’s sponsor was the Vegas Chamber.

In the six decades that a state has provided a tree to the nation’s capitol, this is the first time one has come from Nevada.

U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Cheva Gabor said she hopes it brings visibility to the little-known Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest — the largest forest in the contiguous U.S., which is scattered acro

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