Armand Jackson
December is here and with it brings the season of joy with many families eager to get their own Christmas tree to celebrate the holidays. However, families need to ensure that they acquire themselves a permit from a local Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office beforehand. This is a requirement in order to cut and/or remove trees from BLM-managed public lands. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior BLM, residents must check with their local BLM field office since cutting areas, guidelines, restrictions, and tag prices all vary especially for trees cut on U.S. Forest Service land.
Permits in Colorado can be purchased online for the following local BLM field offices: Colorado River Valley Field Office; Grand Junction Field Office; Gunnison Field Office; Kremmling Field Office; Little Snake Field Office; Royal Gorge Field Office; San Luis Valley Field Office; Tres Rios Field Office; Uncompahgre Field Office; and the White River Field Office. In terms of finding location a great option is recreation.gov. Throughout this site residents can click on permits and refine their search to tree permits, where they can see a list of Christmas tree-cutting locations on national forests and be able to sort the listing by distance to find a forest area close to home.
There are a number of destinations in Colorado for families to get permits and find the perfect Christmas tree to choose from this holiday season. These include; the Indian Peaks Wilderness part of the Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests; Pike and San Isabel National Forest; White River National Forest; Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forest; Rio Grande National Forest; and many more. The Denver Post highlights a few other destinations and Christmas tree cutting opportunities as well.
But wherever you decide to go to find that special Christmas tree for the family make sure you act sooner rather than later. Some have already acquired theirs during November and with the holidays in full swing thedemand will only go up throughout this month.
