Cut Your Own Christmas Tree This Holiday Season
I grew up surrounded by Christmas trees. The Christmas trees were scattered throughout the national forest that circled my hometown. Every year my family would go out into the forest and cut our own Christmas tree. Often there would already be a few inches of snow on the ground that made the forest almost magical and which added to our sense of adventure. We took our time-we had to find the perfect tree.
The perfect Christmas tree was an image each of us held in our minds and dreams and some years we got very close to it. The tree had to be about six feet tall, a Douglas Fir with a perfect taper and very bushy with no bare spots. When we found the tree my father would saw it down and then we’d drag it to the car. It was surprisingly heavy. We would heft it to the top of the car and then tie it down.
You, too, can cut your own Christmas tree. Many urban areas have tree farms where you can cut your own tree, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the real thing: getting out into a real forest and searching for your perfect Christmas tree.
All national forests allow Christmas tree cutting but you do need to have a permit. In most forests, demand is greater than supply so they use a lottery system to select those who will receive a permit. In a forest like the Angeles National Forest so near to Los Angeles, the demand is huge and your chances of getting a permit are small. But some forests are not near big urban areas and almost everyone who applies gets a permit. If you live in an urban area, you could combine a little getaway with cutting your own tree.
Applications for permits are taken in September and permits are issued in October or November. There is a refundable $10 fee.
If you are lucky enough to get a permit you may cut only the kind of tree specified on the permit, say a fir or a juniper, and you must cut only in areas designated by the permit. Cut the tree close to the ground and trim branches from the stump. No stump can be more than six inches from the ground. Do not cut the top off a taller tree, no matter how close to the perfect Christmas tree it may be. Cut out of sight of the nearest road. An armful of green branches may be taken without a permit. Be sure to follow the rules because forest rangers have a habit of popping out of nowhere and you could end up with the most expensive Christmas tree you ever had.
When you get your tree home, store it in a shady area and keep it in water until it is time to bring it into the house. Your tree will be much fresher than those you buy in a lot will, but you still need to keep it in water in the house. Once you get it up and decorated you can sit back and bask in its glow and it will be more beautiful because you cut it yourself.
