Trees grown in Bruceton Mills to be displayed in Washington D.C. this holiday season
September 28, 2023
With this year’s U.S. Capitol Christmas celebration theme being “Endlessly Wild and Wonderful,” a number of smaller trees will be distributed throughout Washington D.C. and Joint Base Andrew. All of these trees will be provided by 84 Lumber and Jim Rockis of Bruceton Mills, WV.
Jim Rockis took an interest in quantitative genetics back in the early 90s with help from late WVU professor, Frank Cech. Since Cech passed back in 2009, Rockis has carried out the knowledge and skill needed to produce genetically superior trees, more specifically the Canaan Fir tree.
“There’s a lot of things that folks don’t know about in our state of West Virginia that we’re doing with forestry, we’re doing with horticulture and I kind of look at myself as combining the two. What we do and is kind of neat, we’re supplying a lot of the seed that goes to high growers in Michigan, New York, Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts and even North Carolina,” Rockis said in an interview with 12 News.