This brings me to this week’s article. You may not be aware of this, but you have a couple different options for your Christmas tree other than going down to the lot at your local mall or Home Depot and buying one that’s already half dead.
The first option is to help your local Forest Service district by helping to clear some trees out of a specific section of the forest. If you go to the Forest Service web site at http://www.fs.fed.us/ you can then on the link for “National Forest Web Sites” and it will give you several choices for finding your local Forest district, assuming that you have one in your area. I recommend using the interactive map because you can then see all of the districts in your area.
Once you find your district you can see if they are doing anything as far as allowing people to cut down trees for Christmas. It is usually around $10 per tree. You will have to get a permit and there will be a specific area that you can work in, and there will be a limit to the area in which you can search for trees that will work for you. The district office will have maps available. Sometimes they will be posted online as well. Look and see if they will be selling the permits at the tree cutting area. If they are, you can save yourself a trip to the district office. There will usually be some sort of limit on the size of tree that you can cut. Often times the limit on the size of tree will be around 6 inches in diameter at the base of the trunk. Height will not matter. If its tall, but 6 inches at the base, that’s fine with them.
This is a great way to help out your local forest, get your Christmas tree for a relatively low cost, and build some great memories. You cannot use a chainsaw and depending on where you are you may need a four-wheel drive vehicle to actually get to the trees, but it is well worth the effort. Whether it’s you and a date, or you and the family, looking for your own tree can be a wonderful outing.
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