What it costs
How much is a Christmas tree permit? Every price this season
Less than you'd guess. Most national forest tags cost $5 or $10 a tree, a few cost $15 or $20, and the Chugach in Alaska asks nothing at all. Here's every price the finder reads this season, then the fees, the free trees, and what a tree off a lot costs for comparison.
From Mt. Hood National Forest (its page still shows the 2025 season), White River National Forest (updated Nov 10, 2026), Kaibab National Forest, Pike-San Isabel National Forests and Chugach National Forest, cutting program flyer (flyer dated Nov 25, 2025), read Nov 11, 2026.
Every price this season
71 of the 79 Forest Service places selling a 2026 permit on Recreation.gov list a price. They run from $5 (Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, Bitterroot National Forest and 33 more) to $20 a tree (Dixie National Forest, Fishlake National Forest and 3 more). 5 places list more than one price, usually by tree size. 8 places have a price Recreation.gov's own records disagree on, so we leave it out here; its page says so.
From Recreation.gov and BLM's permit store, as the finder read them, read Nov 12, 2026.
| Price per tree | Places |
|---|---|
| $5 | 33 |
| $8 | 5 |
| $10 | 19 |
| $15 | 6 |
| $20 | 3 |
| More than one price | 5 |
$5 a tree
- Beaverhead-Deerlodge National ForestMontana
- Bitterroot National ForestMontana, Idaho
- Chequamegon-Nicolet National ForestWisconsin
- Chippewa National ForestMinnesota
- Custer Gallatin National ForestMontana, South Dakota
- Dakota Prairie GrasslandsNorth Dakota, South Dakota
- Deschutes National ForestOregon
- Flathead National ForestMontana
- Fremont-Winema National ForestOregon
- Gifford Pinchot National ForestWashington
- Gila National ForestNew Mexico
- Helena-Lewis and Clark National ForestMontana
- Hiawatha National ForestMichigan
- Huron-Manistee National ForestMichigan
- Idaho Panhandle National ForestIdaho, Washington, Montana
- Kootenai National ForestMontana, Idaho
- Lolo National ForestMontana
- Malheur National ForestOregon
- Monongahela National ForestWest Virginia
- Mt. Hood National ForestOregon
- Nez Perce Clearwater National ForestIdaho
- Ochoco National ForestOregon
- Okanogan-Wenatchee National ForestWashington
- Olympic National ForestWashington
- Ottawa National ForestMichigan
- Rogue River-Siskiyou National ForestOregon, California
- Shawnee National ForestIllinois
- Siuslaw National ForestOregon
- Superior National ForestMinnesota
- Umatilla National ForestOregon, Washington
- Wallowa-Whitman National ForestOregon, Idaho
- White Mountain National ForestNew Hampshire, Maine
- Willamette National ForestOregon
$8 a tree
$10 a tree
- Black Hills National ForestSouth Dakota, Wyoming
- Boise National ForestIdaho
- Eldorado National ForestCalifornia
- Klamath National ForestCalifornia, Oregon
- Lincoln National ForestNew Mexico
- Manti-La Sal National ForestUtah, Colorado
- Mendocino National ForestCalifornia
- Modoc National ForestCalifornia
- Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National ForestWashington
- Nebraska National Forests and GrasslandsNebraska
- Ocala National ForestFlorida
- Payette National ForestIdaho
- Plumas National ForestCalifornia
- Santa Fe National ForestNew Mexico
- Sawtooth National ForestIdaho, Utah
- Shasta Trinity National ForestCalifornia
- Six Rivers National ForestCalifornia
- Tahoe National ForestCalifornia
- White River National ForestColorado
$15 a tree
$20 a tree
The fee on top, and how to skip it
Recreation.gov adds $2.50 to an order on most forests. Buy at a ranger district office or one of the local stores a forest uses and there's no fee: "No additional service fees are charged when purchased from a vendor or district office," says Mt. Hood.
From Mt. Hood National Forest (its page still shows the 2025 season), Lolo National Forest, Lincoln National Forest (updated Oct 30, 2026) and Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forests on Recreation.gov, read Nov 11, 2026.
Some forests price by size. Dixie charges $10 for a tree up to 10 feet and $20 for one 11 to 20 feet tall, so a taller tree can cost twice as much on the same forest.
From Dixie National Forest on Recreation.gov, read Nov 11, 2026.
The free trees
Fourth graders. With an Every Kid Outdoors pass, the tree is free on the forests that honor it; online you still pay the $2.50 fee. How it works.
From Recreation.gov, "Cut a Tree for the Holidays from Your National Forest", Lincoln National Forest (updated Oct 30, 2026) and Kaibab National Forest, read Nov 11, 2026.
The Chugach, in Alaska. "One free tree per household. No permit is required."
From Chugach National Forest, cutting program flyer (flyer dated Nov 25, 2025), read Nov 11, 2026.
Alaska state land. One tree per household for personal use, under 15 feet, on unrestricted state land.
From Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection, via AK Fire Info (Nov 25, 2025), read Nov 11, 2026.
BLM prices
BLM usually charges $5 a tree: Bishop, Ely and the Oregon and Washington offices all list $5. Last winter Interior cut BLM's price to $1 a tree, up to three per household, through Jan. 31, as a one-season deal; Ely's 2026 notice is back to $5. BLM's store prints each office's price on its permit page, and our BLM page lists every office.
From BLM Bishop and Tonopah announcement (Nov 21, 2025), BLM Ely District announcement (Oct 1, 2026), BLM Oregon and Washington's Christmas trees page (no year shown) and Interior press release, Dec. 5, 2025, read Nov 11, 2026.
Why it's so cheap
The Forest Service sets a minimum of $20 for most permits and contracts for small forest products, with one exception written right into its 2008 rule: "the minimum charge for an individual Christmas tree permit." That's how a tree can cost $5 when a firewood permit starts at $20. BLM can sell Christmas trees "without appraisal," for "adequate compensation."
From Federal Register, Dec. 29, 2008, final rule and 43 CFR part 5400, incl. 5400.0-3 and 5402.0-6, read Nov 11, 2026.
It has always been a bargain. In 1965 the Pike National Forest sold trees for $1 each "regardless of size," up to five per person.
From National Archives, Cody White, Dec. 15, 2020, read Nov 11, 2026.
Next to a lot or farm tree
People who bought a real tree in 2023 paid a median of $75, according to the National Christmas Tree Association's survey of buyers. A quarter of them bought at a choose-and-cut farm, the most popular way to buy. A forest tag plus the fee usually comes in under $25, before the gas.
From National Christmas Tree Association, Nov. 2, 2024, Mt. Hood National Forest (its page still shows the 2025 season) and Pike-San Isabel National Forests, read Nov 11, 2026.
What we couldn't find: a reliable average price for an artificial tree, and the association's numbers for any season after 2023. So we don't print either. Wild, farm or artificial, side by side.
From National Christmas Tree Association, Nov. 2, 2024 and American Christmas Tree Association, Oct. 21, 2025, read Nov 11, 2026.
Where the money goes
One forest says: Pike-San Isabel writes that "the funds from tree permits purchased through the recreation.gov system will go back to the participating forest." We couldn't find a national rule that says the same for every forest, so we don't claim one, and we found no national total for what tree permits bring in.
From Pike-San Isabel NFs Christmas 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.