Firewood Permits by State 2026: Prices and Rules

Q: Do you need a permit to cut firewood on public land?

Yes. A personal use fuelwood permit from a national forest, a BLM field office or a state forestry agency lets a household cut a stated number of cords in the areas the permit names. 47 states have one on the books here, across 142 offices.

Q: How much does a firewood permit cost?

$1 to $30 a cord, depending on the office. 63 of the 142 permits here publish a price by the cord, and several agencies set a minimum purchase of several cords rather than selling one.

Q: Can you move firewood across state lines?

Usually not freely. 35 of the 50 states here restrict it, either through a quarantine or by asking for certified heat treated wood, and 12 name a mileage figure past which wood should not travel.

Q: Why is moving firewood restricted?

Insects and diseases ride inside the wood. The pests named most often in these rules are emerald ash borer, asian longhorned beetle, spongy moth, spotted lanternfly, oak wilt and gypsy moth.

Q: What is certified firewood?

Wood heat treated to a temperature and a time the agency sets, then labelled by the treater so the label travels with the bundle. States that ask for it want that label visible at the campsite.

Q: Which states restrict firewood the most?

Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts and Michigan and 21 more have a quarantine in force. Each state page quotes the rule and links the agency.

Q: When is firewood cutting season?

Most agencies sell permits from spring through the end of the year and close the woods for fire season or for mud. The season dates an office has posted are on its state page here.

47

States selling permits

142 permits from 26 agencies

$1 to $30

Price per cord

63 permits priced by the cord

35

States restricting wood

13 more ask you to buy it locally

12

States setting a distance

how far wood may travel to a fire

How it works

How a firewood permit works

A personal use firewood permit is a household’s right to cut a set volume of dead and down wood on public land and haul it home to burn. It is not a licence to sell: nearly every agency writes the words personal use into the permit, and a commercial permit is a different form at a different price. Permits are sold by the ranger district, the BLM field office or the state forestry office that manages the ground, and 47 states have at least one office selling them.

The unit is the cord: a stack four feet high, four feet deep and eight feet long. Nearly every price below is a price a cord, which is what makes them comparable at all.

Personal firewood permits are measured by cord of wood (4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet = 128 square feet) and sold at $5 per cord.

Permits, Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands, USDA Forest Service, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

Most permits come with load tickets, one per quarter cord or per cord, to be filled out and attached to the wood before it moves. The permit holder usually has to be present while the wood is cut and hauled.

Personal-use firewood permits cost $5 per cord, with a minimum purchase of 4 cords/16 tickets (minimum $20).

Firewood Permit, Black Hills National Forest, USDA Forest Service. Read it at the source

8 states have at least one office giving the permit away, 27 offices in all. What a permit does not do is travel. A permit is valid on the land the office manages, and the wood it covers still has to obey whatever the state says about firewood crossing a line, which is the second half of the question.

An open pole woodshed in a spruce clearing, one bay filled with stacked cordwood, a hydraulic log splitter in the foreground — An Alaska woodshed in summer with the winter stacked and the splitter still out. A cord is a stack four feet by four feet by eight feet, and that is the unit nearly every permit is priced in. “Alaska woodshed”, Keith Parker, CC BY-SA 2.0

What a cord costs

Firewood permit prices by state

The 24 states with a price posted by the cord, cheapest first. A bar shows the span between the cheapest and the dearest office in that state, because a state with several agencies rarely charges one number. Across all of them a cord runs $1 to $30.

Arizona$1 to $5
California$1 to $15
Colorado$2 to $5
New Mexico$2 to $20
Michigan$4
Florida$5
Georgia$5
Idaho$5 to $6.25
Minnesota$5
Montana$5 to $10
Nebraska$5
Nevada$5 to $10
Pennsylvania$5 to $20
South Dakota$5
Utah$5 to $6.25
Wisconsin$5 to $20
Wyoming$5 to $7
Alaska$10
New Hampshire$10
New York$10
Vermont$10
Texas$20
New Jersey$25
Connecticut$30

Several agencies set a minimum purchase, commonly four cords, so the cheapest permit in a state is not always the smallest bill. Each state page has the minimum and the household limit for every office.

Moving firewood

The firewood you cannot move

Firewood is how tree killing insects travel. A beetle flies a few hundred yards in a season; a load of untreated wood in a pickup carries it several hundred miles in an afternoon. That is why 35 states now have a quarantine or a certified wood rule on the books, and another 13 ask you plainly to buy it where you burn it.

FIREWOOD ALERT : Buy it where you burn it! Forest pests and diseases often spread on firewood. Help protect Idaho’s natural resources by sourcing your firewood locally (within 50 miles or less) to avoid introducing tree-killing pests.

Camping, Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation. Read it at the source

A quarantine is the strict version: untreated firewood may not cross the state line at all, whatever its species and whoever is carrying it.

No person shall transport, by any means, untreated firewood into the state of Washington, for sale or use within the state, from any location outside of the state.

WAC 16-476-001, Establishing an exterior quarantine for firewood, Washington State Legislature. Read it at the source

Most quarantine states leave one door open. Firewood kiln dried or heat treated to a stated core temperature, and stamped or certified to prove it, is allowed in. That stamp is what the bundles at a grocery store carry, and it is the reason campground hosts sell wood at the gate.

The purpose of this rule is to protect forest health by preventing the long-distance movement of wood-borne invasive forest pests, such as Asian longhorned beetle and oak wilt, into Vermont.

Firewood Quarantine, Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. Read it at the source

A slender metallic green beetle about half an inch long resting on pale cracked tree bark — The emerald ash borer, photographed by USDA Plant Protection and Quarantine. It flies only a short way on its own; a load of untreated firewood carries it as far as the truck goes, which is why more states name it in their firewood rules than any other pest. “Plant Protection and Quarantine (34954841290)”, APHIS.gov, Public domain

Why

The insects the rules are written against

Counting the pests each state names in its own firewood rule shows how few of them are doing the work. The list below is every insect or disease named by more than one state. Spongy moth and gypsy moth are the same insect under its current name and its old one, and both appear because the rules naming them were written years apart.

emerald ash borer31 states
asian longhorned beetle12 states
spongy moth11 states
spotted lanternfly9 states
oak wilt8 states
gypsy moth3 states

Every state

Can you bring firewood into this state?

One row per state, from the agency that writes the rule. Quarantine means untreated firewood may not come in. Certified wood means treated and stamped wood is the way in. Advisory means the state asks rather than forbids, and one state has no firewood rule of its own on the books.

State	Bringing wood in	How far it may travel	Pests named	Permits
Alabama	Advisory	Not set by distance	emerald ash borer	1
Alaska	Advisory	Not set by distance	None named	5, from $10
Arkansas	Quarantine	Not set by distance	emerald ash borer	2
California	Quarantine	Not set by distance	chestnut bark disease, oak wilt disease, spongy moth, pine shoot beetle, Asian longhorned beetle, emerald ash borer	6, from $1 to $15
Colorado	Advisory	Not set by distance	emerald ash borer, spongy moth, Japanese beetle	7, from $2 to $5
Connecticut	Quarantine	Not set by distance	emerald ash borer	1, from $30
Delaware	Quarantine	Not set by distance	spotted lanternfly	1
Florida	Quarantine	50 miles	redbay ambrosia beetle, emerald ash borer, Sirex wood wasp, Asian longhorned beetle, gypsy moth, laurel wilt, beech bark disease, sudden oak death, oak wilt	1, from $5
Georgia	No rule	Not set by distance	None named	2, from $5
Hawaii	Quarantine	Not set by distance	rapid ohia death, ohia wilt, Ceratocystis fimbriata	2
Idaho	Advisory	50 miles	None named	5, from $5 to $6.25
Illinois	Quarantine	50 miles	emerald ash borer	2
Indiana	Certified wood	Certified wood only	emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle, thousand cankers disease, sirex woodwasp, spongy moth	2
Iowa	Advisory	Not set by distance	emerald ash borer, oak wilt	1
Kansas	Advisory	Not set by distance	None named	1
Kentucky	Certified wood	Certified wood only	emerald ash borer, gypsy moth, hemlock woolly adelgid, laurel wilt disease, Asian long-horned beetle	1
Louisiana	Quarantine	10 miles	emerald ash borer	1
Maine	Quarantine	50 miles	emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle, southern pine beetle, browntail moth, spongy moth, spotted lanternfly, oak wilt, Dutch elm disease	1
Maryland	Quarantine	Not set by distance	emerald ash borer, spotted lanternfly	1
Massachusetts	Quarantine	Not set by distance	Asian longhorned beetle	None found
Michigan	Quarantine	10 miles	Asian longhorned beetle, spotted lanternfly, oak wilt, balsam woolly adelgid, emerald ash borer	4, from $4
Minnesota	Quarantine	Certified wood only	emerald ash borer, spongy moth, Asian longhorned beetle	3, from $5
Mississippi	Advisory	50 miles	emerald ash borer	1
Missouri	Quarantine	50 miles	emerald ash borer, oak wilt	2
Montana	Quarantine	Certified wood only	emerald ash borer	6, from $5 to $10
Nebraska	Advisory	Not set by distance	emerald ash borer	1, from $5
Nevada	Quarantine	Certified wood only	None named	8, from $5 to $10
New Hampshire	Quarantine	Not set by distance	None named	1, from $10
New Jersey	Quarantine	Not set by distance	spotted lanternfly	1, from $25
New Mexico	Advisory	Not set by distance	None named	9, from $2 to $20
New York	Quarantine	50 miles	Asian longhorned beetle, oak wilt, laurel wilt	1, from $10
North Carolina	Quarantine	Not set by distance	spongy moth, emerald ash borer	2
North Dakota	Quarantine	50 miles	emerald ash borer	1
Ohio	Quarantine	Certified wood only	spongy moth, spotted lanternfly, Asian longhorned beetle	2
Oklahoma	Advisory	Not set by distance	emerald ash borer	None found
Oregon	Quarantine	Certified wood only	emerald ash borer	12, from $5
Pennsylvania	Quarantine	Not set by distance	spotted lanternfly	2, from $5 to $20
Rhode Island	Advisory	Not set by distance	emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle	None found
South Carolina	Advisory	50 miles	emerald ash borer, redbay ambrosia beetle, Asian long-horned beetle, walnut twig beetle, gypsy moth	1
South Dakota	Quarantine	Certified wood only	emerald ash borer	3, from $5
Tennessee	Quarantine	Certified wood only	None named	5
Texas	Quarantine	Not set by distance	emerald ash borer	1, from $20
Utah	Quarantine	Certified wood only	None named	6, from $5 to $6.25
Vermont	Quarantine	Certified wood only	Asian longhorned beetle, oak wilt	1, from $10
Virginia	Quarantine	Not set by distance	emerald ash borer, spotted lanternfly, spongy moth, imported fire ant, thousand cankers disease, pine shoot beetle, laurel wilt	2
Washington	Quarantine	Certified wood only	emerald ash borer, spongy moth, Asian longhorned beetle, spotted lanternfly, pine wood nematode, Sirex woodwasp, Japanese cedar longhorn beetle	7
West Virginia	Quarantine	Not set by distance	spongy moth	1
Wisconsin	Quarantine	10 miles	emerald ash borer, spongy moth, oak wilt	2, from $5 to $20
Wyoming	Advisory	Not set by distance	emerald ash borer	7, from $5 to $7

By state

Firewood permits, state by state

Each state page has every office’s permit in full: price, minimum, household limit, what wood you may cut, the cutting season, where to buy it, and the rules in the agency’s own words.

Firewood permit questions

Do you need a permit to cut firewood on public land?

How much does a firewood permit cost?

Can you move firewood across state lines?

Why is moving firewood restricted?

What is certified firewood?

Which states restrict firewood the most?

When is firewood cutting season?

Heating oil and propane pricesWhat a gallon costs this winter, state by state, and how that compares with a cord.Christmas tree permitsThe other permit the same ranger district sells each winter.First snowWhen the first measurable snow usually falls, city by city.

Compiled September 22, 2026 from each agency’s own permit page and each state’s own plant pest rule, with the page and the date it was read on every state page. Prices, seasons and quarantine boundaries change, so the agency’s page is the one to check before you load a truck. Start with your state in the table above.