Rules protect forest while keeping Christmas tradition

Rules protect forest while keeping Christmas tradition

December 25, 2001

By Janelle Holden
Journal Staff Writer

It’s a common Christmas fantasy. Load the kids, the dog, and an ax in the car, and then head to the forest to chop down a real Christmas tree.

But finding the perfect Christmas tree isn’t so easy, especially if you play by the rules.

For one thing, there’s the snow. Many roads in the San Juan National Forest are closed in the winter, and those that are open are often so denuded of trees by happy Christmas tree hunters that they are closed the next season.

And then you have to know what type of tree you’re looking at in the forest. Cutting ponderosa pines and Douglas firs, for example, is not allowed by the U.S. Forest Service, which requires you purchase an $8 permit before you even touch the tree.

Once you find a tree that is less than 20 feet tall, at least 100 feet away from the road, and aesthetically pleasing to the rest of your family, you’ve got to dig in the snow until you find the base of the tree so you can leave less than a six-inch stump.

And by the way, it’s illegal to cut down one of those nice, big trees and then take only the tip.

Even though all of these rules are spelled out in a handout the Forest Service gives out with the permits, people still can’t resist.

"I don’t have anything against Christmas trees per se, but going out and giving John Q. Public a permit and tell him go for it, just turn him loose, that is not a good thing," says Lloyd McNeil, a Forest Service trails specialist who does "collateral duty"as a law enforcement officer.

McNeil says he probably sees more people take a tree the wrong way than the right way.

"What they do is, if there is too much snow, they won’t dig down to a 6-inch stump. If the snow is too deep they want to get one that’s off the side of the road and the rules say go 100 feet off the road. If it’s too deep they won’t go high enough up into the hills, so they get a ponderosa pine, which is illegal," explained McNeil.

And then there are the people who decide to amputate the tree. McNeil said he saw one tree on Haycamp Mesa where a man had climbed up the trunk 15 feet just to saw off the tip of the tree.

"The poor little tree just look hammered, and all in the name of getting a Christmas tree," McNeil said.

On an average year, McNeil only gives out four to five citations. Without a permit, cutting a tree could cost you $100 and the tree as evidence, and if you cut one incorrectly with a permit it’s $50, a fact that sometimes makes McNeil look like Scrooge, he said.

"A lot of times when I have too much Christmas spirit I just give them a little chastisement."

People do have their favorite spot for cutting a Christmas tree, but too much of a good thing can result in closing off areas to Christmas tree cutters.

For instance, McNeil asked the Forest Service to close off part of the West Mancos Road because too many trees were being taken there.

"They just cut so many up that corridor that they were denuding the place, so they can’t cut until they get past Transfer Campground now."

The public is also not allowed to harvest Christmas trees in the Sage Hen Wildlife Area, McPhee and Lone Dome Recreation Areas from McPhee Dam to Bradfield Bridge, along the West Dolores road, within the Narraguinnep Research Natural Area, and McPhee Park. The Canyons of the Ancients National Monument is also off limits.

Alan Peterson, who sells tree permits at the Durango Public Lands Center, says he advises people to take their time when they look for a tree.

"I think some folks think there’s just one certain section that you can get trees, almost like they’re lined up in a row. It does take some searching out there, and if you are looking for a tree real quickly, chances are you aren’t going to find one," he said.

Peterson said there is a good rule of thumb for identifying trees. He advises rolling a needle between two fingers. If it rolls, that means it is probably a spruce tree, and if it doesn’t roll it’s likely a fir.

Spruce needles are more "jagged" and firs are softer. Douglas firs have a shorter needle, and are a deeper green than the white firs, which are a little longer and pale green in color.

Blue spruce trees used to be prohibited, said Tom Rennick, who administers the permits at the Dolores Public Lands Center.

"We dropped that requirement because true blue spruce trees grow down in the bottoms and the spruce trees that you find in the forest are Engelmann Spruce. Most people can’t tell the difference."

Rennick said that piñon pines smell nice, make good trees and are found on the more easily accessible BLM terrain. In fact, that’s the tree the Dolores Public Lands Center has decorated in its foyer.

Despite all the obstacles to finding a tree, the tradition is still popular.

The tradition bothers McNeil, who said he personally thinks it should stop.

"We should consider the wildlife, in the Christmas spirit, and don’t take their homes away," he advises.

"They’ve got this Christmas tree thing down to where it’s got to be the perfect tree. You know where you find the perfect trees? Out in the open, by themselves, where they have no competition, and then their full, and they should be left there," explained McNeil, who said the argument that Christmas tree cutting is good for the forest is stuff and nonsense.

He said his Boy Scout troop tried to sell trees from a thinning project once, and they couldn’t find many buyers. "They were skinny and flat-on-one-side; they looked like Charlie Brown Christmas trees," he said.

McNeil said he would like the Forest Service to set up a spot that has too many white firs (which are fragrant, soft, and have a full crown) for Christmas tree hunters, plow the road, and reduce the number of permits.

But Rennick said that is not likely to happen, even though other districts on the Front Range do just that.

"For the amount of trees we sell, it’s not worth it," said Rennick.

City Market and other vendors sell the lion’s share of permits, said Rennick, and that’s something McNeil would also like to see stop so that people are properly informed by the Forest Service about the rules.

"Vendors don’t care, and they don’t have time to explain anything," said McNeil.

As you might have guessed, McNeil has an artificial tree, and says he sees plenty of real Christmas trees around town.

"In Mancos, it really frustrates me that, on every corner, they cut a tree down to put here, and put up there in the school building, or in the bank building (for) only about two or three weeks and that tree is gone forever. It’ll never make any more piñon nuts, and it won’t provide any more shelter for a bird to build a nest in."