I must admit, as a kid raised on the East Coast who now lives in Texas, the idea that you could harvest your own Christmas tree on public land is a foreign, wonderful concept.
But it makes sense. We harvest meat and mushrooms and trout from our public land–why not Christmas trees?
If you’re fortunate enough to live in a state where such a magical Yuletide tradition is possible, take advantage of it. Don’t get your tree at Home Depot. Venture into the mountains and cut one down yourself, like St. Nick and Paul Bunyan intended.
If you’re not sure where to start, you’ve come to the right place. I am myself a novice Christmas tree hunter, but our pals over at onX are the Rudolphs that will light our way through this fog.
Jack Flatley recently published an article outlining the five best states for harvesting your own Christmas tree, and I reached out to get his advice on finding the perfect ornament-hanger in your neck of the woods. (If you’re curious, those five states are Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Montana, and California, though Jack also picked four states east of the Mississippi.)
First things first. The type of public land you’re looking for is within the National Forest or Bureau of Land Management system. Don’t go wandering into a National Park and expect the rangers to let you waltz away with your own Douglas fir.
Once you’ve identified a National Forest or BLM parcel within driving distance, you’ll need to obtain a permit to cut down a Christmas tree. These are available at Recreation.gov for National Forests or on this page for BLM land. Permits usually cost between $5 and $20. If you’ve visited your local big box store recently, you know that it is significantly less expensive than buying a tree in town.
Be sure to read that permit carefully. Just like states impose quotas and bag limits to effectively manage wildlife populations, federal resource managers impose rules governing tree harvest. Different national forests have different rules about when and where you can harvest your tree. Some require the stump to be a certain length, or prohibit harvest of trees over a certain height. Also, just like with game animals, be sure you understand the requirements for affixing the permit to the tree once you’ve cut it down.
With all that homework completed, it’s time to finally venture into the woods and get yourself a Brutus of your own. (If you understand that reference, you had a childhood like mine.)
OnX is helpful for finding a Christmas tree in many of the same ways it’s helpful for finding a mule deer. Public/private layers can ensure you stay within the correct boundaries, and the tracker feature can help you find your way back to the car. Some national forests also require trees to be harvested a certain distance from roads or campgrounds, so the line distance tool can make sure you adhere to these regulations.
One tool Jack said could be especially useful is the coniferous tree distribution layer. You can find it by clicking the Map Layers button on the app and scrolling down to Trees, Crops, and Soil. The Coniferous Trees Distribution layer has options for six species: pine, fir/hemlock/spruce, juniper, larch, tamarack, longleaf/pine, and “other.” This layer can be especially useful when paired with satellite imagery to locate a stand of trees where your future living room decoration might reside.
“My family has a long-standing tradition of getting a Christmas tree on public land around Thanksgiving,” MeatEater’s Maggie Hudlow said. “If you’re concerned about the ethics of harvesting a green tree, many agencies recommend harvesting from dense, young stands or within aspen stands. Choosing a tree in one of these locations can be a small way to help out with forest health and benefit wildlife habitat.”
Most permits do not allow the use of motorized chainsaws to harvest a tree, so you’ll probably have to go old-school. But cutting down a single, normal-sized Christmas tree doesn’t take too long with a simple hand saw.
As with an elk or a deer, be sure to consider the pack out. You might think the perfect tree lives five miles from the parking lot, but once you walk out and cut it down, you have to drag it back. There’s a balance, of course. Less hardcore Christmas tree hunters will harvest the trees closest to the road, so it might be worth working out a packout plan to access those more desirable evergreens.
Christmas is only two weeks away, which means now is the perfect time to get yourself the perfect public land tree. It won’t dry out before the big day, and you can even enjoy it through the new year. Who knows? You might just start your next favorite holiday tradition.
Read the full article here