[1][2][3] The tree was named for Harold John Lutz, a scientist who specialized in forest soils and worked briefly for the United States Forest Service in Alaska where he collected the material used to describe the hybrid.

[4] A Lutz spruce from Alaska's Chugach National Forest was selected in 2015 for the Capitol Christmas Tree.

Lutz's spruce grows as tall as 30 meters in height, and it is a generally symmetrical tree with open and downward bowing branches.

The spruce bark beetle is a part of the native ecosystem, mainly hosted by the white spruce of the dryer interior, in south-central Alaska where the tree loss occurred in apparently healthy old growth forest.

[7] One theory about the decimation of trees is that warmer spring and summer temperatures have allowed the beetles an annual reproductive cycle, shortened from every two to three years, while warmer winter temperatures have increased the number of beetles that live through winter to reproduce in spring.