If you prefer to search the snowy woods rather than a parking lot for your family’s Christmas tree, permits are for sale for each of the three national forests in the Blue Mountains.

Christmas tree permits for the Umatilla, Wallowa-Whitman and Malheur national forests are available at forest offices, many local businesses, and online through recreation.gov.

Permits purchased online must be printed to be valid.

Christmas tree permits cost $5 each and are limited to one per household. An additional $2.50 fee will be charged for permits bought through recreation.gov.

With unusually deep snow in the mountains this fall, people planning to cut their own tree should be prepared for slippery roads and recognize that most higher-elevation areas won’t be accessible to wheeled vehicles.

Forest visitors should always bring extra food, water and warm clothing, and make sure someone knows where you’re going and when you plan to return.

As part of the national “Every Kid Outdoors” initiative, all fourth graders are eligible for a free Christmas tree permit from their local national forest. For students to receive a free tree permit, they must present a valid paper voucher printed from the Every Kid Outdoors website. Visit everykidoutdoors.gov and follow instructions to obtain and print the paper voucher.

For more information about the Christmas tree programs on the three national forests in the Blue Mountains, go to fs.usda.gov/umatilla, fs.usda.gov/malheur or fs.usda.gov/wallowa-whitman.

General guidelines include:

• Cut your tree at least 50 feet away from the road.

• Clean up any trimmings or limbs.

• Leave stumps no higher than 10 inches. It is not legal to “top” a tree taller than 15 feet.

• Remove any green limbs left that remain on the stump.

• Do not cut in active timber sales or areas that have been planted with new trees.

• Do not cut on private land, wilderness areas, designated campgrounds, or existing tree plantations.

• Do not cut trees in the municipal watersheds, ski areas or experimental forests.

• Do not cut trees in posted old growth areas or within 1/4 mile of wild and scenic corridors.

• Christmas tree cutting within sight of a state highway is prohibited.

National forests in the Blue Mountains are amply endowed with multiple species of conifers that are suitable for Christmas trees.

Here’s a list of some of the common tree species in our region:

Grand fir/white fir

These true firs are abundant at the lower elevations that are more likely to be accessible in late fall.

They also have a classic Christmas tree form, with nicely spaced branches that offer plenty of places for ornaments, lights and tinsel.

Although grand fir and white fir are separate species, hybrids bearing traits of both are common in the Blue Mountains, the late Charles Grier Johnson Jr., longtime forest ecologist in the Blues for the Forest Service, wrote in his definitive “Alpine and Subalpine Vegetation of the Wallowa, Seven Devils and Blue Mountains.”

“Hybridization between these two true firs … make identification difficult,” Johnson wrote.

Subalpine fir

Full-grown subalpine firs are easy to recognize from their slender, dart-like shape. But in juvenile form they sometimes resemble grand firs.

A distinguishing characteristic of the subalpine fir is its needles. They grow at all angles from the limb, rather than in flat, orderly rows as a grand or white fir’s do.

Although subalpine firs usually grow at higher elevations than grand firs, the two species occasionally mingle between about 5,500 and 6,000 feet.

Douglas-fir

Not a true fir — hence the hyphen — these conifers have more in common with hemlocks.

Although Douglas-fir is a favorite Christmas tree species in the Cascades and Coast Range, the Rocky Mountain variety that grow in our forests typically aren’t as graceful in appearance as grand or white firs.

Lodgepole pine

Lodgepole pines are easy to find, but lodgepole pines that make good Christmas trees are not.

Lodgepoles of the right height tend to be a bit sparse of limb and a bit unkempt in appearance, as though they had slept in an alley.

Lodgepoles are the only pines native to Oregon whose needle bundles contain two needles (ponderosa pines have three needles per bundle, white and whitebark pines five).

Ponderosa pine

Like lodgepoles, ponderosa pines are plentiful in many places, especially at lower elevations. But their long needles aren’t well-suited for ornament placement, and they lack the layered limbs that distinguish firs.

Engelmann spruce

A person might mistake a spruce for a fir, but there’s an easy way to tell which is which: grab a limb.

If you think you just poked a porcupine, you just touched a spruce.

Spruce needles are stiff and have prickly edges, unlike the softer, more finger-friendly firs.

Spruce trees usually grow in wet areas, and often are found in groves near streams.