Two people carry a freshly cut fir out of a snowy national forest, a black dog running ahead of them
More Than Just ParksChristmas Tree Finder

144 places with a permit online · 110 on sale today144 online · 110 on sale today

Type your ZIP. We'll show you where it's legal, when sales open and what a permit costs, straight from the agencies.Type your ZIP for where it's legal, when sales open and what a permit costs, straight from the agencies.

Or browse by stateSee the map

How this works

USDA Forest Service photo by Andrew Avitt

How this works

79 national forests list a 2026 Christmas tree permit on Recreation.gov, and 65 Bureau of Land Management offices list one in BLM's permit store. We read both on Nov 12, 2026 and print what they say: the dates, the price, the limit and the rules, each with its source. Sale times are in each place's own time zone. Recreation.gov prints them in Eastern, and we convert. A permit is the agency's to sell, and the rules on it are the agency's. We quote them and link them. We don't sell permits, and nothing here is one.

2 forests have pages on Recreation.gov with no permit type named and no dates on them. We print what the page says and no date. 53 more Forest Service units and 50 BLM field offices don't list a permit in either store. We say "not posted yet" for those, never "no program": some sell at the office and never post one online. Distances are straight lines to a forest's boundary, not to the cutting area and not by road. The forest's own map shows where you can cut. How we read the agencies · Not a permit, not the agency

About

About the Christmas Tree Finder And how to tell us what we got wrong

This season the finder holds 79 Forest Service places and 65 BLM offices with a 2026 permit online.

From Recreation.gov and BLM's permit store, as the finder read them, read Nov 12, 2026.

What it is

The Christmas Tree Finder answers one question: where near me can I legally cut my own Christmas tree this year, when do permits go on sale, and what do they cost? Type a ZIP code and it shows the national forests and Bureau of Land Management offices near you, each with its dates, price, tree limit and rules, and a link to the agency's own page to buy the permit.

From Recreation.gov and BLM's permit store, as the finder read them, read Nov 12, 2026.

It's made by More Than Just Parks, which builds free public tools about America's public lands. A tree off a national forest is one of the oldest ways to use land that belongs to all of us, and the rules for doing it are scattered across dozens of agency pages. This puts them in one place.

From Recreation.gov and BLM's permit store, as the finder read them and Recreation.gov's tree permits page, read Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 11, 2026.

Where the facts come from

Two stores sell federal Christmas tree permits online: Recreation.gov for the Forest Service, and BLM's forest products store for the Bureau of Land Management. We read both every day from October through December, and every hour on the morning a forest opens sales. Every place prints the store it came from and the day we read it.

From Recreation.gov and BLM's permit store, as the finder read them, Recreation.gov's tree permits page and BLM's online forest products permit store, read Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 11, 2026.

Dates, prices, limits and rules are the agency's, as the store prints them, and rules are quoted, not reworded. When a place hasn't posted a permit online, we say "not posted yet," never "no program": some sell only at the office. How we read the agencies has the details.

From Recreation.gov and BLM's permit store, as the finder read them, read Nov 12, 2026.

The guide pages (how to cut your own tree, what to bring, the questions) are written from the agencies' own tree pages, extension services, safety groups and state transportation agencies. Every paragraph names its sources and the day we read them.

From Recreation.gov and BLM's permit store, as the finder read them, Pike-San Isabel National Forests and National Christmas Tree Association, care tips, read Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 11, 2026.

What it isn't

It isn't a permit, and it isn't the agency. We don't sell permits. The permit you buy, and the map and rules printed on it, are what count. If something here disagrees with the agency, the agency is right. Not a permit, not the agency.

From Recreation.gov and BLM's permit store, as the finder read them, read Nov 12, 2026.

Tell us something's wrong, or send a tip

If a date, price or rule here doesn't match the agency, or you know something we should, tell us here. A person checks every report against the agency's own page before anything changes. Your email is optional, and only used to write back.

Written by More Than Just Parks from the agencies' own pages, read Nov 11, 2026. The permit you buy, and the map and rules printed on it, govern. Not a permit, not the agency.