Burn Permits by State: Who Needs One and When

Q: Do I need a permit to burn leaves in my yard?

It depends which of five answers your state gives. 24 states issue a burning permit themselves. 3 want a phone call rather than a document. 6 hand the permit to your town, county or fire district. 16 require nothing from the state for yard debris, though a county still can. One prohibits backyard burning outright. Every state's answer is in the table below, quoted from the agency that wrote it.

Q: What can you never burn outdoors?

The lists across the fifty states agree on a core of it: tires, treated and painted wood, plastics, roofing and household garbage. Beyond that core the lists diverge, and some states that allow leaves prohibit grass clippings, or allow brush and prohibit stumps. Each state page carries its own list, quoted.

Q: How much does a burn permit cost?

Most of the states that issue one charge nothing: 7 name a free permit against 5 that name a price, and the priced ones are mostly a few dollars for a season or a year. 20 states take the application online. Every price here was read on September 23, 2026 off the agency page it links to.

Q: Where do these answers come from?

Each state's record was read off that state's own forestry, environmental or fire agency: the rule, the agency that wrote it, a verbatim sentence from the document and a link to it. Compiled September 23, 2026, all 50 states, and every answer here traces back to one of those documents.

24

States that issue a permit

20 of them online

16

States with no permit for yard debris

the rules still apply

17

States a date table gets wrong

the dates are narrower than the state

43

States with a daily burn check

read the morning you burn

The answer

Do you need a burn permit?

For burning yard debris on your own property, the country splits four ways. 24 states run a permit themselves, usually through the forestry agency or the state fire marshal, and 20 of those take the application online. 6 states adopt a rule that requires a permit and then hand the issuing to the town, the county or the fire district, which means the permit exists but the state is not the office to ask. 3 states ask you to notify someone before you light rather than to hold a permit, which is a real distinction: there is nothing to apply for and nothing to carry, but the call still has to happen.

The remaining 16 states require no permit from the state for household yard debris. That is not the same as no rules. Those states still set what may be burned, how far from a building, in what hours and under what conditions, and most of them still post a burn ban when the weather turns, which is binding whether or not a permit was ever involved.

If open burning is allowed in your community, contact your local fire department to obtain an open burning permit in advance. You will not find any links on the state website for open burning permits. You must contact your local fire department directly. Open burning permits are issued at the local level based on local conditions.

Open Burning Safety, Department of Fire Services and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

A state that sets the rule and delegates the issuing is the case worth being careful about, because a search usually turns up the state page and the state page cannot tell you the answer for your address. The state page here names the office that can.

A person shall not burn any brush, stumps, logs, fallen timber, fallows, slash, grass-covered land, brush-covered land, forest-covered land, or other flammable material, in any state responsibility area, area receiving fire protection by the department by contract, or upon federal lands administered by the United States Department of Agriculture or Department of the Interior, unless the person has a written permit from the department or its duly authorized representative or the authorized federal officer on federal lands administered by the United States Department of Agriculture or of the Interior and in strict accordance with the terms of the permit: (a) At any time in Zone A. (b) At any time in Zone B between May 1st and the date the director declares, by proclamation, that the hazardous fire conditions have abated for that year, or at any other time in Zone B during any year when the director has declared, by proclamation, that unusual fire hazard conditions exist in the area.

Public Resources Code, Division 4, Part 2, Chapter 6, Article 2, Section 4423, California Legislative Information. Read it at the source

A green Texas State Line sign beside an interstate in open country, with a small white sign bolted under it reading BURN BAN IN EFFECT — The rule changing at a line on the map, on Interstate 40 at the New Mexico border. Burning is governed at the state level, then again at the county level, and often again by a fire district inside that. Both halves of this signpost are the law where it stands. “"Texas State Line" and "Burn Ban In Effect" signs along eastbound Interstate 40”, Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0

Every state

Burn permits and burning seasons, state by state

One row per state: whether the state issues a permit for yard debris, when the state closes burning, and the agency to ask. Where the season column names a shape instead of a date pair, the state’s dates do not apply statewide or do not mean what they appear to, and that state’s page carries the rule in the agency’s own words.

State	Permit for yard debris	When the state closes burning	Who to ask
Alabama	State permit	No closed season	Alabama Forestry Commission
Alaska	State permit	A permit season, not a burning season	Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry & Fire Protection
Arizona	State permit	Some counties only	your county air quality department or control officer, not a single state office
Arkansas	No state permit	No closed season	Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment, Division of Environmental Quality
California	State permit	No closed season	California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE)
Colorado	State permit	Some counties only	Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Air Pollution Control Division
Connecticut	State permit	No closed season	Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Delaware	Notify first	May 1 to Sep 30	Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Division of Air Quality
Florida	No state permit	No closed season	Florida Forest Service
Georgia	No state permit	Some counties only	Georgia Forestry Commission
Hawaii	Prohibited	No end date	Hawaii State Department of Health, Clean Air Branch
Idaho	State permit	No closed season	Idaho Department of Lands
Illinois	No state permit	No closed season	Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Air
Indiana	No state permit	No closed season	Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Office of Air Quality
Iowa	No state permit	No closed season	Iowa Department of Natural Resources
Kansas	No state permit	Some counties only	Kansas Department of Health and Environment, Bureau of Air
Kentucky	Ask your town	Hours, not days	Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, Division for Air Quality
Louisiana	No state permit	No closed season	Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
Maine	State permit	No closed season	Maine Forest Service
Maryland	State permit	Some counties only	Maryland Department of the Environment
Massachusetts	State permit	Jan 15 to May 1	Massachusetts Department of Fire Services and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
Michigan	State permit	No closed season	Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Forest Resources Division
Minnesota	State permit	No fixed dates	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry
Mississippi	State permit	No closed season	Mississippi Forestry Commission
Missouri	No state permit	No closed season	Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Air Conservation Commission
Montana	State permit	No closed season	Montana Department of Environmental Quality, Air Quality Bureau
Nebraska	State permit	No closed season	Nebraska State Fire Marshal
Nevada	Ask your town	No closed season	Nevada Division of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Air Quality Planning
New Hampshire	State permit	No closed season	New Hampshire Division of Forests and Lands
New Jersey	State permit	No closed season	New Jersey Forest Fire Service
New Mexico	No state permit	No closed season	New Mexico Environment Department, Air Quality Bureau
New York	No state permit	Mar 16 to May 14	New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
North Carolina	State permit	Hours, not days	N.C. Forest Service, North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
North Dakota	No state permit	No closed season	North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Air Quality
Ohio	No state permit	More than one window	Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Division of Air Pollution Control
Oklahoma	No state permit	No closed season	Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality
Oregon	Ask your town	More than one window	Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
Pennsylvania	Ask your town	State forest land only	Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Forestry
Rhode Island	State permit	No closed season	Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management
South Carolina	Notify first	No closed season	South Carolina Forestry Commission
South Dakota	Ask your town	No closed season	South Dakota Wildland Fire Division
Tennessee	State permit	A permit season, not a burning season	Tennessee Division of Forestry
Texas	No state permit	No closed season	Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Utah	State permit	More than one window	Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Air Quality
Vermont	State permit	No closed season	Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation
Virginia	Ask your town	Hours, not days	Virginia Department of Forestry
Washington	State permit	No closed season	Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Wildland Fire Management Division
West Virginia	No state permit	Hours, not days	West Virginia Division of Forestry
Wisconsin	State permit	No closed season	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Wyoming	Notify first	No closed season	Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, Air Quality Division

Permit column answers for household yard debris only. Agricultural, forestry, land clearing and prescribed burning are separate programs in most states, often with their own permit and their own season.

Where the dates mislead

The 17 states a date table gets wrong

The usual way to publish this subject is fifty rows of two dates each. For 17 states that produces a wrong answer, and the reasons are worth reading because they are not all the same reason. Some dates apply in named counties and nowhere else. Some apply on state forest land and not on private land at all. Some are hours within a day rather than a stretch of the calendar. Some mark the window in which a permit is required, which is the opposite of a window in which burning is allowed. And some states run two separate seasons in one year.

Alaska is the shape of the problem. Alaska does not close burning for part of the year, but the state only issues burn permits from April 1 through August 31, so that is the window in which a permit is both available and required.

Every state page on this site takes its season sentence from one function, and that function returns nothing at all when the shape of the rule would make a date pair misleading. Those pages print the agency’s sentence instead.

The Summer Burn Ban reduces ozone by prohibiting certain open burning activities from May 1 through September 30 in specific counties.

Open Burning Rules for Georgia, Georgia Environmental Protection Division. Read it at the source

AlaskaA permit season, not a burning season
Alaska does not close burning for part of the year, but the state only issues burn permits from April 1 through August 31, so that is the window in which a permit is both available and required.
ArizonaMay 1 to Sep 30Some counties only
In the Phoenix area, which the statutes call area A, open outdoor fires are unlawful from May 1 through September 30 every year. The rest of Arizona has no statutory season and is governed by its county instead.
ColoradoNov 1 to Mar 31Some counties only
The seven county Denver and Boulder metro area is closed to open burning from November 1 through March 31, the winter high pollution season. The rest of Colorado has no statutory season and burns on the day's conditions instead.
GeorgiaMay 1 to Sep 30Some counties only
Most of Georgia has no state burning season and a homeowner may burn leaves and limbs any day of the year, but in the 54 counties named by the Environmental Protection Division the summer burn ban shuts leaf burning down from May 1 through September 30.
HawaiiNo end date
There is no open burning season in Hawaii. Backyard burning of garbage and yard waste has been prohibited on every island since January 2012, and the only routine open burning the state permits is agricultural burning by a working farm.
KansasApr 1 to Apr 30Some counties only
Kansas sets no burning season for most of the state, but in sixteen named counties the state closes open burning for the whole month of April to keep Flint Hills range smoke out of the cities, with range and pasture management burns, residential burning and cooking fires exempted.
KentuckyFeb 15 to Apr 30Hours, not daysMore than one window
Kentucky runs two forest fire hazard seasons, Feb. 15 through Apr. 30 in spring and Oct. 1 through Dec. 15 in fall. They do not close burning outright: inside them, burning within 150 feet of woodland or brushland is legal only between 6 pm and 6 am, so a daytime brush pile near the woods is out.
MarylandJun 1 to Aug 31Some counties only
Maryland sets no statewide burning window, but open burning is prohibited every summer in the central counties and Baltimore City; elsewhere burning is allowed any day of the year subject to the hours and safety rules.
MinnesotaNo fixed dates
Minnesota closes a spring window every year in the fire prone parts of the state, but the dates are not fixed in advance: the DNR sets them on the condition of the dead grass and posts them each spring, and they lift at green up.
North CarolinaHours, not days
North Carolina sets no seasonal open burning window; a permit is required year round for a fire in or within 500 feet of state protected woodland, and in most counties only for fires lit between midnight and 4 p.m.
OhioMore than one window
Outside municipal limits Ohio forbids open burning between six in the morning and six at night during March, April, May, October and November, so those five months are the closed part of the year and burning happens in the evening.
OregonMar 1 to Jun 15More than one window
Oregon names two yard debris burning seasons, a spring one from March 1 to June 15 and a fall one from Oct. 1 to Dec. 15, and a yard debris permit covers one of them or both in a calendar year.
PennsylvaniaState forest land only
Pennsylvania sets no statewide open and close dates for burning on private land: the dates that stop you are a temporary county burn ban, a municipal ordinance, or a governor's statewide proclamation. On state forest land the state does set dates, closing fires in fire rings and fireplaces from March 1 through May 25.
TennesseeA permit season, not a burning season
Tennessee closes no part of the year to open burning. What changes with the calendar is the permit: the Division of Forestry requires one from October 15 through May 15, and requires none in summer, though counties and cities may have their own rules any month of the year.
UtahSep 15 to Oct 31More than one window
Utah opens two burn windows everywhere, April 1 to May 31 and September 15 to October 31, and adds a third from November 1 to March 31 in attainment areas only, and in every window the application will not open unless the clearing index is high enough that day.
VirginiaFeb 15 to Apr 30Hours, not days
From February 15 through April 30 the state closes only the daylight hours: open air burning within 300 feet of woods or dry grass is banned before 4 p.m. and allowed from 4 p.m. to midnight, and outside those dates the state sets no seasonal window at all.
West VirginiaMar 1 to May 31Hours, not daysMore than one window
West Virginia runs two forest fire seasons, March 1 through May 31 and October 1 through December 31, and during both of them outdoor burning is closed in daylight and allowed only between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m.

When you may burn

When the burning season actually runs

There is no national burning season, and the states that have one do not agree on which half of the year it is. 23 states close no part of the calendar at all and leave the answer entirely to the day’s conditions. 13 write dates into the rule, and those dates point in both directions: the northeast tends to open burning in late winter and shut it for the growing season, while much of the south and west shuts it for the dry months instead.

Hours matter as much as dates and are easier to miss. 26 states restrict burning to certain hours of the day, most commonly some version of after sunrise and out before sunset, or a late afternoon start so the fire burns down overnight in cooler, damper air.

11 states set no state dates whatsoever, which means the calendar for your address is written by your town, county or fire district and nowhere else.

Piles of brush burnt down to rings of white ash on a forest floor with smoke drifting through the pines, a single crew member in yellow standing at a distance watching them — Piles burnt down to ash at the Grand Canyon, with one person left standing over them. Almost every state permit carries the same condition in some wording: somebody stays with the fire until it is out. That attendance requirement, not the paperwork, is what most permits are really about. “Grand Canyon National Park - Prescribed Pile Burning, May, 2019”, Grand Canyon NPS, CC BY 2.0

What may burn

What states agree may never go on the pile

The permitted material list is close to identical from state to state, and so is the prohibited one. Counting across all 50 records, the items below are what the most states name as off the pile.

tires18 states
plastics9 states
furniture7 states
plastic7 states
rubber7 states
garbage6 states
Asphalt shingles4 states
heavy oils4 states
Railroad ties4 states
asbestos3 states

Leaves are the interesting entry, because they are what most people actually want to burn and several states name them specifically. The reasoning is the same everywhere: a damp, packed pile smoulders rather than burns, and the smoke is the thing the air quality rule is written about.

You may not burn: Leaves Brush, trees, cane or driftwood from commercial or industrial land clearing Grass, hay, leaves, stumps or tires Construction materials or demolition debris Household trash

Open Burning Safety, Department of Fire Services and Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Read it at the source

What it costs

What a burn permit costs

Most states that issue a burn permit do not charge for it. Of the 24 that issue one, 7 say in so many words that it is free, and 5 name a dollar figure. The states below are the ones that publish a price.

State	What the permit costs	Who charges it
Colorado	Free	Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Air Pollution Control Division
Idaho	Free	Idaho Department of Lands
Illinois	Free	Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Air
Maine	Free	Maine Forest Service
New Jersey	Free	New Jersey Forest Fire Service
North Carolina	Free	N.C. Forest Service, North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Wisconsin	Free	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Minnesota	$5	Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry
New Hampshire	$5.50	New Hampshire Division of Forests and Lands
Nebraska	Up to $10, and only if the local fire department chooses to charge	Nebraska State Fire Marshal
Washington	$105.50 for a permit covering under 100 tons of consumable debris, rising with tonnage	Washington State Department of Natural Resources, Wildland Fire Management Division
West Virginia	$125 each, for commercial, manufacturing, mining, public utility and like activities only	West Virginia Division of Forestry

Where a state delegates issuing to a town or fire district, the fee is set locally and is not on this list even when one is charged.

The morning of

The check that matters more than the permit

A permit says you may burn in general. What says you may burn today is a separate thing, and 43 states publish it: a fire danger rating, a county burn ban map, an air quality forecast, a burn day or no burn day call, or a recorded hotline. It changes daily, it is issued on a wind and humidity forecast, and it overrides a permit already in hand.

FFS County-Enacted Burn Ban Map : This map reflects the county-enacted burn bans as reported to the Florida Forest Service. Local burn bans are enacted by county governments.

Florida Forest Service. Read it at the source

Every state page below links that state’s own check, so the question the morning of is one page rather than a search.

A close low view of a wildland crew member walking through pine needles and cones, trailing a line of low flame from a red drip torch, with two more crew working in the smoke behind — A drip torch laying fire into ponderosa litter on the Manti-La Sal. This is the other half of the permit system: most state forestry agencies issue permits for prescribed and agricultural burning under a separate rule from the one covering a homeowner and a pile of leaves. “Drip Torch Line at Shingle Mill Burn”, Intermountain Region US Forest Service, Public domain

By state

Burn permit rules, state by state

Each state page has the permit answer and the agency that issues it, the season in the state’s own words, the hours, what may and may not be burned, the setbacks and wind limits the state writes, and the daily check to read before you light.

Burn permit questions

Do I need a permit to burn leaves in my yard?

Why do burn season tables disagree with each other?

Because a burning season is not usually a pair of dates, and a table has two columns. 17 of the fifty states carry a season that a date pair misrepresents: the dates apply in named counties rather than statewide, or to state forest land only, or they close the daylight hours instead of the days, or the state runs two windows and the table holds one, or the dates say when a permit is required rather than when burning is allowed. Those states are listed on their own below, with what the dates actually are.

When is burning season?

23 states close no part of the year at all and settle it on the day's conditions instead. 11 leave the dates entirely to counties and fire districts. 13 publish dates of their own, and those dates split about evenly between spring fire seasons in the east and summer ozone seasons in the cities. The calendar is never the last check: 43 states publish a daily fire danger or burn ban page, and that is what governs the morning you want to light.

What can you never burn outdoors?

How much does a burn permit cost?

Does a permit mean I can burn that day?

No, and this is the distinction worth carrying away. A permit or a notification settles whether you may burn at all; whether today is a day for it is a separate question that the fire authority answers each morning through a fire danger rating, a burn ban or an air quality forecast. Several states revoke permits outright when the weather turns. The page for your state links the daily check its agency publishes.

Where do these answers come from?

Firewood permitsWhat a cutting permit costs, and the wood a state will not let you move.Heating fuel pricesWhat heating oil and propane cost this season, week by week.Frost line depthHow deep the ground freezes, and who actually says so.

Rules read September 23, 2026 from each state’s own agency, with the page and the date on every state page. Rules change, a county or town may be stricter than the state, and a burn ban issued today overrides a season that is otherwise open. Start with your state in the table above.