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Can you cut your own Christmas tree in a national forest? Yes. Here's the whole idea.
Yes, you can cut your own Christmas tree in most national forests, and on a lot of BLM land in the West. You buy a permit, usually $5 to $20 a tree, online or at a ranger station, and most national forests give fourth graders theirs free. Then you print it, drive into the forest, and cut a small tree in the areas the forest marks on its map. It's legal on national forests and BLM land, but never in a national park, where taking any plant is against the rules. The Forest Service has sold these permits since at least the 1950s, and people bought 312,168 of them in 2024.
From Recreation.gov tree permits index, BLM's online forest products permit store, Mt. Hood National Forest (its page still shows the 2025 season), Pike-San Isabel National Forests, Kaibab National Forest, Recreation.gov, "Cut a Tree for the Holidays from Your National Forest", Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, 36 CFR 261.6, Plumas National Forest on Recreation.gov, 36 CFR part 223, 36 CFR 2.1 and Albuquerque Journal, Cathy Cook, Dec. 5, 2025, read Nov 11, 2026.
How does this work?
Find your forest. Pick a national forest or BLM office near you that sells a permit this year. The finder shows which ones are on sale.
From Recreation.gov tree permits index and Recreation.gov and BLM's permit store, as the finder read them, read Nov 11, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026.
Buy the permit and print it. Usually $5 to $20 a tree on Recreation.gov, BLM's store or at a ranger station. Most forests want it on paper, and there's often no cell service out there anyway.
From Mt. Hood National Forest (its page still shows the 2025 season), Pike-San Isabel National Forests, BLM's online forest products permit store, Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest and Gifford Pinchot National Forest on Recreation.gov, read Nov 11, 2026.
Cut one small tree, the right way. Only in the areas on the forest's map, the whole tree, with a low stump. Never the top of a big one.
From Plumas National Forest on Recreation.gov, Lincoln National Forest (updated Oct 30, 2026) and White River National Forest (updated Nov 10, 2026), read Nov 11, 2026.
Tag it and take it home. Put the tag on the trunk before you drive off, then get it into water at home.
From Pike-San Isabel National Forests, White River National Forest (updated Nov 10, 2026) and National Christmas Tree Association, care tips, read Nov 11, 2026.
The 60-second version
You already own a lot of forest. National forests and grasslands cover about 193 million acres, and BLM looks after about 245 million more. Unlike a national park, where you can't take so much as a pinecone, a national forest is run for many uses, and selling what grows there is one of them.
From USDA Forest Service, About the Agency, BLM Utah press release, Dec. 5, 2025, 36 CFR 2.1 and 36 CFR part 223, read Nov 11, 2026.
Every fall Christmas tree permits for 79 national forests and grasslands go up on Recreation.gov, some covering more than one forest. A tag usually costs $5 to $20, plus $2.50 an order if you buy online. Buy one for the forest you'll actually visit, because it's only good there.
From Recreation.gov tree permits index, National Geographic, Alejandra Borunda, Dec. 14, 2021, Mt. Hood National Forest (its page still shows the 2025 season), Pike-San Isabel National Forests, Lincoln National Forest (updated Oct 30, 2026) and Plumas National Forest on Recreation.gov, read Nov 11, 2026.
Why do they let you? Their own line: permits "help thin densely populated stands of small-diameter trees," and clearing some can open space for wildlife to feed. Foresters are also honest that your one tree won't fix fire risk. The real win is people: 312,168 permits in 2024, each one a household out on land that belongs to it.
From Recreation.gov tree permits index, Santa Fe NF release, Nov. 18, 2025, CapRadio, Ezra David Romero, Dec. 5, 2018, Boise State Public Radio / Mountain West News Bureau via KNPR, Murphy Woodhouse, Dec. 21, 2023 and Albuquerque Journal, Cathy Cook, Dec. 5, 2025, read Nov 11, 2026.
The rules are simple and they matter: cut the whole tree, keep the stump low, stay out of plantations, burns and wilderness, and leave protected trees like whitebark pine alone. And every year one national forest sends a giant tree to the U.S. Capitol, a tradition since 1970.
From Lincoln National Forest (updated Oct 30, 2026), White River National Forest (updated Nov 10, 2026), Mt. Hood National Forest (its page still shows the 2025 season), Eldorado National Forest, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Dec. 2022, whitebark pine listing release and Architect of the Capitol, Capitol Christmas Tree page, read Nov 11, 2026.
What you are actually buying
A Christmas tree permit is a printed permit, often with a tag for the trunk, that lets your household cut a set number of trees, usually one to five, for your own use, in the areas and sizes that forest names. You can't sell the tree: "Trees obtained under the Christmas tree permit may not be resold," in the words of several forests.
From Pike-San Isabel National Forests, Eldorado National Forest, Mt. Hood National Forest (its page still shows the 2025 season), Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forests on Recreation.gov, White Mountain National Forest on Recreation.gov and Chugach National Forest, cutting program flyer (flyer dated Nov 25, 2025), read Nov 11, 2026.
It's for one forest or one BLM office. A BLM permit is "only valid on BLM-managed public lands," and a Forest Service permit only covers the forest that sold it, inside the cutting areas on its map. Plumas spells it out: its permits "ARE NOT VALID on the Lassen National Forest!"
From BLM Wyoming's Christmas trees page (2025 season), Plumas National Forest on Recreation.gov and 36 CFR 261.6, read Nov 11, 2026.
What it costs
On the national forests we read on Nov. 11, from free to $20 a tree, most of them $5 or $10. Recreation.gov adds $2.50 an order; buying at a ranger office or a local vendor skips that fee. BLM usually charges $5, and last winter's $1 BLM tree was a one-season deal.
From Mt. Hood National Forest (its page still shows the 2025 season), Lolo National Forest, White River National Forest (updated Nov 10, 2026), Pike-San Isabel National Forests, Lincoln National Forest (updated Oct 30, 2026), BLM Bishop and Tonopah announcement (Nov 21, 2025), BLM Ely District announcement (Oct 1, 2026) and Interior press release, Dec. 5, 2025, read Nov 11, 2026.
For comparison, people who bought a real tree in 2023 paid a median of $75 for it, according to the National Christmas Tree Association's survey. Every price, and how it compares.
From National Christmas Tree Association, Nov. 2, 2024, read Nov 11, 2026.
Who can go
Anyone can buy one. You need a Recreation.gov account to buy online; at a ranger office or a local vendor, you just pay.
From Lolo National Forest, Chippewa National Forest news release (Nov 19, 2025) and Mt. Hood National Forest (its page still shows the 2025 season), read Nov 11, 2026.
Most national forests give fourth graders a free tree. With an Every Kid Outdoors pass, they check a box on the forest's listing and pay only the $2.50 online fee. How the free fourth-grade tree works.
From Recreation.gov, "Cut a Tree for the Holidays from Your National Forest", Every Kid Outdoors and Lincoln National Forest (updated Oct 30, 2026), read Nov 11, 2026.
Where you can cut
On national forests that run a program: Recreation.gov lists 81 Christmas tree permits this season. On BLM land, through BLM's own store, for offices in 13 states, nearly all of them in the West. Not in a national park, ever.
From Recreation.gov tree permits index, BLM's online forest products permit store and 36 CFR 2.1, read Nov 11, 2026.
Inside a forest you still can't cut just anywhere. Each one draws cutting areas on a map and rules out places like wilderness, campgrounds, plantations and recent burns. Forest, park or BLM: how to tell the land apart.
From Plumas National Forest on Recreation.gov, Mt. Hood National Forest (its page still shows the 2025 season), Lincoln National Forest (updated Oct 30, 2026) and Eldorado National Forest, read Nov 11, 2026.
When
Sales usually open in October or November, and cutting usually ends between Dec. 24 and Jan. 6. Some forests cap their permits and sell out; Eldorado's are "expected to sell out quickly." When each place opens this year.
From Kaibab National Forest, Eldorado National Forest, Tonto National Forest, Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest on Recreation.gov, read Nov 11, 2026.
Why the Forest Service lets you
National forests are run for many uses, and the law lets the Forest Service sell trees and other forest products to carry that out. National parks work the other way: their rules forbid removing plants at all.
From 36 CFR part 223 and 36 CFR 2.1, read Nov 11, 2026.
The agencies' own reason is thinning: the cutting areas are crowded stands of small young trees, and taking some "helps other trees grow larger and can open areas that provide forage for wildlife," as the Santa Fe National Forest puts it. Eldorado's Jennifer Chapman told a reporter the program is mainly about connecting people to the land, with the thinning "an added benefit."
From Santa Fe NF release, Nov. 18, 2025 and CapRadio, Ezra David Romero, Dec. 5, 2018, read Nov 11, 2026.
Is it good for the forest, then? Done by the rules, it doesn't hurt, and it doesn't fix fire risk either. The honest answer.
From CapRadio, Ezra David Romero, Dec. 5, 2018 and Boise State Public Radio / Mountain West News Bureau via KNPR, Murphy Woodhouse, Dec. 21, 2023, read Nov 11, 2026.
What you can't do
Don't cut in a national park. Park rules ban removing or disturbing any plant.
From 36 CFR 2.1, read Nov 11, 2026.
Don't top a big tree. Forest Service managers stopped topping back in the late 1940s, and forests today say it plainly: "cut down the entire tree."
From National Archives, Cody White, Dec. 15, 2020, Lincoln National Forest (updated Oct 30, 2026) and Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forests on Recreation.gov, read Nov 11, 2026.
Don't cut without the permit for that forest. Cutting without authorization on a national forest can bring a fine of up to $5,000, according to Pike-San Isabel.
From 36 CFR 261.6 and Pike-San Isabel NFs Christmas tree permits page, read Nov 11, 2026.
Don't take a protected tree. Whitebark pine is federally threatened, and removing or damaging one on federal land is illegal. Five needles in a bundle: leave it.
From U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Dec. 2022, whitebark pine listing release, read Nov 11, 2026.
Don't resell it. It's a personal-use permit.
From Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forests on Recreation.gov and White Mountain National Forest on Recreation.gov, read Nov 11, 2026.
Where to next
Find a forest near you. Open the finder and put in your ZIP code.
From Recreation.gov and BLM's permit store, as the finder read them, read Nov 12, 2026.
See the whole trip in two minutes. How it works, step by step.
From Recreation.gov, "Cut a Tree for the Holidays from Your National Forest", read Nov 11, 2026.
Ready to go? The full how-to guide and what to bring.
From Pike-San Isabel National Forests and Mt. Hood National Forest (its page still shows the 2025 season), read Nov 11, 2026.
Still wondering about something? Questions and answers.
From Recreation.gov's tree permits page, read Nov 11, 2026.
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.