If you’re still shelling out $40 – $100 bucks for a pre-cut Christmas tree from some sap-covered dude in a shady parking lot – good luck to you with the inevitable aphid infestation that’s soon to follow – but when you could just head to one Wisconsin’s beautiful state parks and harvest one from there, I question your motivations.
Yes (Russ) they did invent Christmas Tree Lots so people didn’t have to drive to the middle of nowhere in the freezing cold just to get a tree. But where’s the fun and/or tradition in that?
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is reminding Wisconsinites that they can harvest a holiday tree from a northern state forest.
According to a Press Release from the DNR…
… trees can be cut down in the Brule River, Flambeau River, Governor Earl Peshtigo River, Governor Knowles and Northern Highland-American Legion state forests.
Members of the public can get a permit to harvest a personal-use holiday tree at the state forest property headquarters. The price may vary slightly from property to property, but the average cost is $5 per tree. Fresh evergreen boughs may also be harvested with a permit for non-commercial forest products.
Before heading into the woods with a saw and permit in hand, the DNR reminds visitors that harvesting is prohibited within 100 feet or visual distance of roads, trails and water, and there is no harvesting from campgrounds or day-use areas. Trees must be cut at ground level with a maximum height of 30 feet, and the trees taken from state forests cannot be resold.
Other than that, time to get choppin’!
[WI DNR]
