Michigan, state permit, with a daily check

Michigan Burn Permit: Do You Need One and When

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

Yes. Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Forest Resources Division issues it, online, local fire department, local governing body and phone. It covers the day you look it up.

Q: What can't you burn in Michigan?

Michigan names demolition debris, construction materials, automotive parts and household trash that contains plastic, rubber, foam, chemically treated wood, textiles, electronics, chemicals or hazardous materials. The lists across the fifty states agree on a core of it: tires, treated and painted wood, plastics, roofing and household garbage. The full list is quoted below from the state.

Q: Does a burn ban override a permit in Michigan?

A permit or a notification settles whether you may burn at all. Whether today is a day for it is a separate question, answered each morning by fire danger ratings, burn bans and air quality forecasts, and several states revoke permits outright when the weather turns. Michigan Department of Natural Resources posts that check, linked below.

Michigan gives you the permit and the daily answer in the same place: check the DNR burn permit map for your township, and if it says yes you may burn leaves, brush and stumps that day without printing anything, while readers in the southern Lower Peninsula call their own fire department instead.

State permit

Permit for yard debris

Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Forest Resources Division

No closed season

When burning is closed

the daily check is the answer

Published

Daily check

Michigan Department of Natural Resources

The answer

Do you need a burn permit in Michigan?

A state permit

Yes, and the state issues it

Michigan requires a state burning permit, and no part of the year is closed, so the answer is the daily check.

Who issues it: Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Forest Resources Division
Issued by: an online county and township map that grants the permit for the day, in the Upper Peninsula and the northern Lower Peninsula; the local fire department everywhere south of that
How long it lasts: the day you look it up

Burn permits are available from the DNR for counties in the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula only. In the southern Lower Peninsula, permits may be obtained from the local fire department or local governing body. For more information, call 866-922-BURN (866-922-2876).

Burn permits: Check open burning status, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Where you get one

Online
Local fire department
Local governing body
Phone

Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Forest Resources Division's permit system

When

When you may burn in Michigan

Statewide dates

The state closes no part of the year, so the answer is the daily check.

Michigan sets no calendar season: the permit is granted or refused day by day on the county map, and while the ground stays snow covered no permit is needed at all.

Who sets it: Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Checked against: Section 324.51503: Burning permits; conditions, Michigan Compiled Laws

At any time the ground is not snow-covered, a person shall not burn any flammable material on or adjacent to forest land, except for domestic purposes, without a permit from the department.

Section 324.51503: Burning permits; conditions, Michigan Compiled Laws, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

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 you may and may not burn in Michigan

What the state names as burnable

leaves
grass
limbs
brush
stumps
evergreen needles
household paper materials

What it names as off the pile

demolition debris
construction materials
automotive parts
household trash that contains plastic, rubber, foam, chemically treated wood, textiles, electronics, chemicals or hazardous materials

Never burn demolition debris, construction materials, automotive parts, or household trash that contains plastic, rubber, foam, chemically treated wood, textiles, electronics, chemicals or hazardous materials.

Burn permit frequently asked questions, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

The conditions

What Michigan asks of the weather and the site

Setbacks, wind limits and what has to be on hand. These are written into the rule rather than offered as advice.

no permit is needed for a cooking fire or a recreational campfire
no permit is needed while snow covers the ground continuously
no yard debris may be burned within 1,400 feet of a city or village limit
keep the fire from spreading for as long as it burns

Any person doing any burning on or adjacent to forest land for other than domestic purposes, prior to such burning operations, and at all times while the burning continues, shall take such action in and around the area in which the burning is done so as to prevent the spread of fire as may be required by the department.

Section 324.51503: Burning permits; conditions, Michigan Compiled Laws, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

The morning of

What to check before you light in Michigan

A permit or a season says you may burn in general. What says you may burn today is separate, it changes daily on a wind and humidity forecast, and it overrides a permit already in hand. In Michigan it is published here.

a statewide county and township map that says yes or no for today, and doubles as the permit

Michigan Department of Natural Resources

View a map of Michigan counties with burn permit information: If “yes” appears in the “Burning Permits Issued” column on your county, you are authorized to burn today. This serves as your burn permit - you don't need to print anything.

Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

A volunteer fire department letter board reading BURN BAN IN EFFECT above a Smokey Bear fire danger sign showing HIGH, with a red flag flying beside it — A volunteer fire department in Florence, Texas, posting the answer on its own sign. A burn ban is usually declared by a county judge or a local fire authority, and it closes burning that a state permit would otherwise allow. Whatever the season says, the ban is the last word. “Florence Texas VFD Burn Ban Sign”, Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0

Your town

What your town can add in Michigan

Local ordinances come first, and where none exist state law still allows grass and leaf burning only in municipalities under 7,500 people and bans yard debris burning within 1,400 feet of a city or village limit under the air quality rules.

Check with your local city, township or village officials before lighting your fire. If no local ordinances are in effect, state law: Allows burning grass and leaves in municipalities with populations less than 7,500 unless prohibited by local ordinance. Prohibits burning any yard debris within 1,400 feet of an incorporated city or village limit under EGLE air quality rules.

Burn permits: Check open burning status, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Michigan burn permit questions

Do I need a permit to burn leaves in Michigan?

When can you burn in Michigan?

How do I find out if there is a burn ban in Michigan today?

What can't you burn in Michigan?

What are the rules for a legal burn pile in Michigan?

Who do I call before burning in Michigan?

Does a burn ban override a permit in Michigan?

Why are burning rules so different from state to state?

Because two different problems wrote them. In the forested states the rule is about wildfire, so it turns on fire danger, on how close the pile is to woodland and on the hours of the day; 26 states set hours for that reason. In and around the cities the rule is about air quality, so the closed season is summer ozone or winter inversion and it is written by county. Michigan's rule comes from Michigan Department of Natural Resources, which is the clearest sign of which of the two it is.

Michigan rules read September 23, 2026 from Burn permits: Check open burning status, Michigan Department of Natural Resources. 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. Every state is on the burn permit hub.