I t may be hard for Las Vegans to picture Nevada as a winter wonderland. But the state’s northern forests are already blanketed in snow, weighing down towering tree branches. Freshness fills the air, along with seldom heard winter birdsong and creaky trunks. Among these thousands of evergreens, one will soon be dressed in festive finery and introduced to the nation.

“The People’s Tree” is Nevada’s tree this winter. The U.S. Capitol Christmas tree hails from that Silver State wonderland for the first time in the program’s 55-year history.

The 53-foot-tall, 100-year-old Nevada red fir — newly christened “Silver Belle” — was harvested at the end of October from the Carson Ranger District of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, the largest national forest in the Lower 48. The district encom

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