Like the old fashioned Christmas? Gather the family together, grab your bow saw and head up to the Kancamagus Highway!
Every year until December 23, you can cut down your own Christmas Tree in the White Mountain National Forest, including the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire. You must purchase a tag to cut your own Christmas tree at the Saco Ranger Station. Tags are available for $5.00/each.
Rules:
Trees are not for resale
No use of chainsaws
Tree trunks must not be larger than 8 inches in diameter at chest height.
Tags must be displayed on your Christmas tree.
Limbs and wood must be scattered at least 100′ feet from roads, streams, hiking trails, and property boundaries. In other words, don’t make a mess.
Tree hunters at the visitors’ center are handed a sheet of paper with suggestions to dress warmly and pack a lunch, and a list of rules.
Some of the revenues from Christmas tree permits are used to provide additional services to families cutting them, such as plowing roads leading to the cutting sites, keeping permit offices open extra hours and on weekends, and providing educational activities.
The White Mountain National Forest sold about 290 permits in 2002. In 2009, the White Mountain National Forest sold 460 permits.
More than 250,000 Christmas trees were harvested from US Forest Service lands in 2009.
Permits are sold through Dec. 23, permits can also be bought at White Mountain National Forest offices in Gorham, Conway, and Campton, NH.
For more information, call the Saco Ranger Station at 603-447-5448