Cut your Christmas tree in Pike National Forest

Planning a low-cost Christmas this year? You can save money on at least one aspect of the festivities by cutting your own tree.

Through a popular annual program, select areas of the Pike National Forest will be open to tree cutting beginning Monday.

Permits allow tree cutting through Dec. 16 in areas east and north of Woodland Park. Each permit is $10, and there is a limit of five permits per person.

The cutting areas are along Rampart Range Road, Forest Road 300. Signs will be posted, and a map is available when purchasing permits. Roads in the north end of the cutting area — 325, 237, 348, 351 — require four-wheel-drive vehicles with chains.

You’ll likely find Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, ponderosa pine, Englemann spruce, and limber pine in the cutting areas. The trees are native and will not be as full or as well-formed as those grown at commercial tree farms.

Foresters ask that people cut trees with trunks no greater than six inches in diameter and as close to the ground as possible.

Permits must be attached to the trees before leaving the cutting area.

PERMITS

Available: Pikes Peak Ranger District, 601 S. Weber St., Colorado Springs, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday beginning Monday; Woodland Park Middle School parking lot, 600 E. Kelly Road, 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Dec. 5, 6, 12 and 13.

Payment: $10 each in cash, check or money order; all sales final.