Juneau residents are now able to remove Christmas trees from specified areas from Thanksgiving.
“We’re an element of the Christmas the creepy,” Assembly member Alicia Hughes-Skandijs laughed during an Lands, Housing and Economic Development Committee meeting on Monday.
The city allows each household to take one live evergreen tree every year from a specific area that are on public land. In the past, residents had to wait until December. 1.
“There’s only a handful of families who make it a an element of their Thanksgiving celebration which is why we came up with this modification,” said Dan Bleidorn who is the city’s land as well as resources director.
Trees must be cut minimum 50ft from trails for hiking in areas that are marked by the town’s cutting wood map.. These areas are located near Fritz Cove and False Outer Point on North Douglas and near Bridget Cove and Sunshine Cove, between mile markers 33 and 38 along Glacier Highway.
Based on policy rules, Christmas trees have to be cut on the ground. Residents may also cut down trees to use for firewood in the same zones. As opposed to Christmas trees, those trees must be dead or in a good condition.
The deadline to pick Christmas trees at the cutting zones is December. 31.
It is also possible to harvest a tree. U.S. Forest Service also permits every Juneau household to take one tree each year – at any time and from certain Tongass National Forest land without having to obtain a permit. Trees aren’t allowed to be taken from the developed Forest Service sites, which comprises Auke Village, Lena Beach and the entire Mendenhall Glacier Recreation Area.
As per the Forest Service, trees should not be larger than 7 inches in diameter around the stump. They request that trees be cut to within 12 inches of the ground and as close as they can be.
In both municipalities and Forest Service land, trees shouldn’t be cut down from muskeg areas since it could take a long time the trees to re-grow.
