Minnesota Burn Permit: Do You Need One and When

Yes. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry issues it, online, DNR Forestry Office, active fire warden, phone and text message. It covers the calendar year online, or up to three continuous days on a written permit, and it must be activated each day burning occurs.

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. Inside that, burning is allowed a fire in an approved burner without a permit runs between six in the evening and eight in the morning. The sentence is quoted from Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry below, with a link.

No, and this is the part most tables get wrong. What the dates are: no 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. A fifty-state table that prints two dates beside Minnesota is telling you something the state did not say.

a statewide fire danger and burning restrictions map, plus the daily activation call or text that tells you whether conditions allow your permit to be switched on. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources publishes it, and the link is below. A season that is open on the calendar can still be closed today, which is why that check is the last one before a fire.

Minnesota names hazardous wastes, industrial solid waste, demolition debris of commercial or institutional structures, motor vehicles, oils and rubber among others. 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.

no permit needed once three inches of unbroken snow surround the fire. no permit needed for a cooking or ceremonial fire under three feet across and three feet high with five feet cleared around it. The conditions are quoted in full below.

Minnesota's permit costs $5. It is good for the calendar year online, or up to three continuous days on a written permit, and it must be activated each day burning occurs. The state takes the application online. Read on September 23, 2026, and a fee can change; the agency's page is linked below.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry, and the fire district where the fire will be. A state answer and a local answer can both apply, and the local one is the one that knows about today.