SNOHOMISH — On the bank of the Pilchuck River, off of Old Snohomish-Monroe Road, stands a not-so-traditional Christmas tree, although it’s decorated for the part nonetheless. Towering over 100 feet, the massive Black Cottonwood has been adorned with holiday spirit in the form of solar powered Christmas decorations.
“The idea came to me when I was thinking of solar panels and how that could be a good way to get light out to that tree,” said Dan Kraus, a local arborist and owner of Champion Tree Care in Everett.
“This is my first time using solar, so I am finding the ins and outs,” said Kraus. “It was the only way I could do it. With the tree being so big and so secluded off on its own it would have been impossible to run electricity out to it.”
With a source of power in mind, his idea grew.
Kraus constructed the decorations himself by hand. Oversized ornaments were made from giant beach balls wrapped in blue string lights. No Christmas tree is complete without a few stars, and keeping with his theme, Kraus built wooden stars and wrapped them in lights as well.
Some may ask, “How one would go about decorating a 100 foot tall Black Cottonwood tree?” For Kraus, who is also a championship-winning tree climber, that was the easy part.
“I had been working on it for about two weeks making the decorations,” said Kraus. “I had them made already and I brought them all out (to the tree) in a big truck.”
With the help of two fellow climbers and multiple people on the ground, the crew managed to get the decorations in the tree in less than a day.
“I got a climbing party together, we went out there and got them all up,” said Kraus. “We have done some recreational climbing in (the tree) before, so all the deadwood had been cleaned out previous to the decorating,”
Although, like any other western Washington winter, it is dark and rainy, proving to be a problem for the solar-powered Christmas tree.
“Solar panels are fantastic in that I am able to do something like this way out where there’s no electricity,” said Kraus. “But then again we live in the Pacific Northwest so the solar panels need to be in just the right position, but even then, if it’s raining all day you have no light at night.”
Being a second generation arborist and owning a tree care service means Kraus has spent most of his life working on and climbing trees.
“I’ve (decorated) some Christmas trees here and there. I don’t do it for a living; I’ve just done it for relatives,” said Kraus. “So I’ve done some big trees before but I’ve never done a big deciduous tree like that before.”
Standing tall over the soccer fields, the lights can be seen driving south on Lincoln Avenue. Passing under the train tracks and across bridge, the tree can be spotted off to the left, less than 100 yards from the road.
“There’s a trail on top of a dyke and on that trail people can walk right to the tree,” Kraus said. “It’s kind of a public trail, people walk on it all the time. Anyone can park on the road, right next to the gate there’s enough room for about four or five cars.”