ARLINGTON — It was completed in time for the annual Eagle Festival on Feb. 5, but it took the city of Arlington a while to find a fitting home for the giant eagle, with its wings raised high.

On May 18 at 1 p.m., the city installed the 10-foot-tall chainsaw-carved cedar sculpture by Debbie Anderson on the medians of Division Street, between West Avenue and Broadway.

Anderson worked over the winter holidays on the sculpture to ensure that it was finished in time for her to donate it to the city during this year’s Eagle Festival, on behalf of the Country Chainsaw Carvers. Although Anderson only started carving with a chainsaw slightly more than two years ago, she’s made it her mission to turn chainsaw carving into a community event for Arlington several times each year, and has attracted fellow carvers from throughout the Pacific Northwest to her home town to take part in those events.

Like many chainsaw carvers, Anderson chose cedar for her sculpture not only because it’s a softer wood, but also because it contains a natural preservative. Before painting the sculpture, she burned its surface with a blowtorch to bring out the sculpture’s details and the highlights of the wood grain, as well as to seal out insects.