Permits
Non-timber forest products, or special forest products, include foods such as plants, wild edible mushrooms, fruits and nuts; medicinal plants and fungi; floral greenery and horticultural stock; fiber, oil resins, and other chemical extracts from plants, lichens, and fungi; as well as fuelwood and small diameter wood used for poles, posts, and carvings.
Special forest products are a vital part of local and regional economies and many products hold significant cultural value which represents a long history of ecological knowledge and local use.
Personal and Commercial Use permits are required in order to gather many special forest products. Permits may require a fee payment and must be obtained from Forest Service offices. Availability may vary by season and district office.
Forest Product Permit Types
Check with each individual forest for information on how & where to obtain your personal or commercial use permit. Some permits are available online, or from local vendors as well as forest district offices.
Holiday Tree permits:
- Forest offices: Christmas tree permits go on sale in late November at most national forests in the Rocky Mountain Region.
- Vendors: Check with each forest for a list of local vendors that are currently selling permits.
- Online: Christmas Tree Permits are now available online at Recreation.gov.
- Every Kid Outdoors initiative offers one free Christmas Tree permit to fourth-graders that have a valid 4th Grade Interagency Pass. These free Holiday Tree permits are only available at U.S. Forest Service District offices only.
Other Permits
The Rocky Mountain Region of the Forest Service issues region-wide permits to qualified consulting firms planning to work on National Forest System (NFS) lands. These permits are for non-ground-disturbing surveys including limited testing (e.g. shovel tests, scrapes, probes). These permits are special use authorizations issued under the Organic Act (16 U.S.C. l 2 3, and 4) that allow consulting firms to conduct archaeological inventories on National Forests and Grasslands in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming administered by the Rocky Mountain Region.
This type of permit does not cover research, evaluations, or mitigation requiring excavations or extensive testing; a permit authorizing such activities must be obtained separately under the authority of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) from the forest where the project is located.
Once you have completed the application and gathered all required documentation, you may email it to Molly Westby (Regional Heritage Program Manager, molly.westby@usda.gov). Please allow 2 – 3 weeks for processing.