WASHINGTON — After a gray, rainy day at the U.S. Capitol, the clouds parted, revealing a sunset that one could call borrowed from the desert skies of Nevada. A bald eagle circled overhead, squirrels foraged under a manicured landscape, and flocks of robins and starlings decided on a tree to roost for the night. All of these species have something in common — habitat in America’s national forests.

At the center of the otherwise bare West Lawn stands a Christmas tree, chosen from Nevada’s national forest — the largest in the contiguous United States — the Humboldt-Toiyabe. As night fell, the neon spirit was in the nation’s capital.

“My grandpa worked at Mount Rose ski area for nearly 50 years, and my dad is a firefighter … in Virginia City.” That’s how Grady Armstrong started his speech at

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