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Wilding Permits Now Available For Coconino National Forest

Beginning Monday, Arizonans with a permit can harvest a number of tall pines growing in the Coconino National Forest.

Spokesman George Jozens said it will be more of a shovel and gloves, rather than a chainsaw or hatchet, job to harvest the Wildings.

"There's a certain area they'll be able to go to," Jozens said. "They're actually harvesting trees that we don't necessarily need in that area."

The Wildings are small trees at 12 feet tall or shorter and create a fire hazard that need removing – root and all - to help keep the forest floor healthy.

He recommends about a 4 foot tall Wilding for best transplanting. Permits cost $20 for the first 20 feet of trees gathered, then a dollar per added foot.

And, unlike the Christmas trees, there is no limit on the number, but there is a limit on the type.

Jozens warned to plan ahead, because you can only take what you paid for and the permits are long way away from the harvesting zone.

Plan, too, to only harvest pine species, because the permits are, "only good for the Douglas Fir, the White Fir, the Ponderosa Pine, Pinon Pine, and Juniper," Jozens said. "There's not enough Aspen and other broad leaf trees to offer."

Holliday Moore was a reporter at KJZZ from 2017 to 2020.