Nat'l Christmas tree dies, is cut down

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WASHINGTON, May 6 (UPI) -- The United States is without a national Christmas tree again after one transplanted in March 2011 died and had to be cut down, officials said Saturday.

The National Park Service said in a statement posted on its Web site that the Colorado blue spruce, located on the Ellipse south of the White House, was done in by transplant shock.

The tree, which came from a New Jersey tree farm, had replaced another blue spruce that had graced the Capital from 1978 until it was felled by high winds in February 2011.

The National Park Service has another blue spruce picked out in "an adjacent state" that it will transplant in late October, allowing plenty of time for it to be decorated for Christmas, the park service said.