Putting the Ax to Illegal Tree Cutting : Environment: Rangers clamp down on violators who sneak into the woods to nab pines for the holiday. But officials admit that catching thieves is difficult.

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST — U.S. Forest Service Ranger Will Shaw hates giving tickets to people who try to rustle Christmas trees from the Angeles National Forest.

Not that he won’t give you a ticket--a potentially very expensive ticket--if he catches you chopping down a tree in his forest. He will, faster than you can sing “O Tannenbaum!” But it won’t make him feel good.

Because the way Shaw figures it, every illegal-tree-cutting ticket he writes means there’s one less tree in the forest.

“Our purpose is to prevent people from cutting the trees, not to give them a citation after they’re already cut,” says Shaw, 45, a 16-year Forest Service veteran assigned to the Arroyo Seco Ranger District. “In some ways, issuing a citation for cutting a tree is a kind of failure on our part--a failure to educate people about not cutting trees, or a failure in preventing them from doing it.”

Every year about this time, the Christmas tree rustlers head into the National Forest, hoping to get a tree without getting caught. Whether the rustlers constitute a swarm or a trickle is hard to determine.

According to District Ranger Terry Ellis, supervisor in the Arroyo Seco district, which stretches from La Crescenta to Duarte to Wrightwood, Forest Service rangers in the district handed out a dozen citations during last year’s holiday season for illegally taking “forest products”--whole trees as well as tree branches, mistletoe, or, almost anything found in the forest. Ellis estimates that perhaps 10 times that many violators don’t get caught.

Others say the number of rustlers is lower than that; still others say it’s higher. By its nature, Christmas tree rustling is hard to quantify.

But the rangers all agree that if left unchecked, Christmas tree thefts could constitute a serious environmental problem for the 660,000-acre forest.

“A lot of people may think, ‘Hey, what’s one tree?’ ” says Shaw, who so far this season, has issued five citations for removal of forest products, and in five other cases prevented their removal ahead of time. “But you have to remember, there’s about 15 million people in the area around this forest. If every one of them took just one tree it would mean 15 million trees lost. The forest would be stripped.”

According to Shaw and other rangers, Christmas tree thieves range from elderly couples to young guys in pickup trucks to families in station wagons. When caught, most plead ignorance of the law, even though roads, turn-outs and trail heads throughout the forest are festooned with signs about the tree-cutting prohibition. They get a ticket anyway.

(The maximum penalty for tree-stealing in the National Forest, which is a federal offense, is a $500 fine, six months in jail and a bill for three times the value of the tree as determined by a forester. Statistics on actual penalties assessed are unavailable, but rangers say violators most often get a fine and perhaps some community service time, but no jail time.)

Some tree thieves do it strictly to save money, although rangers wonder what in the world they’re thinking.

“I don’t understand why they do it,” says Ellis. “You drive 60 miles round trip on the Angeles Crest Highway, have to work at getting the tree, and run the risk of a $500 fine and even jail, when you can buy a Christmas tree for $19.95. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Other tree thieves think they have a right to take a tree.

“A lot of people believe it to be part of the Christmas experience to go out and cut down a tree,” Shaw says. “They enjoy bringing home part of the forest. I caught some once, a couple in their 50s in the act of preparing to cut down a tree and they said, ‘Why, we’ve been doing this for 30 years.’ I told them, ‘Then I’m sorry I didn’t catch you sooner.’ Because that meant 30 trees had disappeared from the forest.”

Forest rangers suggest that if you want to cut down your own Christmas tree, there are plenty of commercial “choose-and-cut” tree farms in the L.A. area.

Shaw and other rangers use a variety of tactics to catch tree thieves, from “agricultural inspection” roadblocks to tips from forest informants. Shaw says he often stakes out likely tree-stealing areas, armed with a set of binoculars and a lot of patience.

“You never know when we might be watching you,” Shaw says.

Not everyone gives up when nabbed by the law. Once a tree-stealer threatened him with an axe, Shaw says; another time a tree thief led him on a high-speed chase. Sheriff’s Department deputies usually are called in to assist in such cases.

Although tree cutting is prohibited, there are a few seasonal items that can be taken for personal use from the Angeles National Forest. You’re allowed to gather 10 pine cones, if they’re open and on the ground; one dead yucca stalk, one dead manzanita branch and one grocery bag of mistletoe. You may be allowed to take more forest materials if you obtain a permit. For more information, contact the Arroyo Seco Ranger District at (818) 790-1151.