RIGA (Reuters) - Latvian authorities have given residents something to cheer about when they invited them to cut their own Christmas trees for free -- only to be chased away by forest rangers.

A Riga forestry agency said on Wednesday a state body had invited residents to cut their trees from forests located 50 km (30 miles) or more outside the capital, but people had instead descended on protected areas around the city.

The authority was quoted by news agency LETA as saying that rangers in charge of forests around Riga had been struggling to keep people away to protect the few fir trees that grow around there.

"The authority's staff are being driven to despair," said a spokeswoman.

I wonder if they had signs, indicating which trees were off limits. You can't have people just chopping down protected trees, for their Holiday....oops, I mean their CHRISTMAS TREES. :tree: ;)

sounds like there's a big communication gap betw. the two agencies. Endgangered trees have to be protected...aren't there nice synthetic ones out nowadays???????? (I'm not of the Christian faith & never have a tree so I don't really know)

I love the title of this thread, Brian. :lol:

I dont even like getting a tree anymore.......

They dont smell Piney anymore.......... The establishment have ruined eveything about christmas...........

It really makes me sad to type this........

Christmas season was good for a lot of my early life, now Nothing...just another day for me.

It all took a huge turn when I took my daughter who was 18 and flew off to Hawaii to escape the maddness of it all. That was 42 yrs ago