Mon Forest offers a Christmas tree option

ELKINS, W.Va.-- If you find the idea of traveling over the river and through he woods to cut down your own Christmas tree appealing, West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest has a place in mind for you.

The river you'll be crossing is a section of Shavers Fork that winds its way across the top of Cheat Mountain east of Elkins and the woods are a blend of northern hardwoods and high-elevation red spruce. But the places where Christmas tree cutting is allowed (by permit only) are former strip mines onto which red spruce and several pine species are migrating. Cutting is also allowed on power line rights of way crossing the Mon south of U.S. 250 atop the mountain.