Skip to content
Arkansas, 2026 season, 2 offices

Arkansas Firewood Permits 2026: Prices, Seasons and Rules

Both Arkansas national forests sell personal use firewood permits, the Ozark-St. Francis online or at a district office for up to four cords of dead and down wood, and the whole state sits under a statewide emerald ash borer quarantine that treats firewood of every hardwood species as a regulated item.

2
Offices selling permits
national forest and BLM
On the office page
Price per cord
set district by district
Quarantine
Bringing wood in
Arkansas Dept of Agriculture
1
Pest named
emerald ash borer
Office by office

Where to buy a firewood permit in Arkansas

2 offices in Arkansas sell a personal use firewood permit. Each office posts its own price on its permit page.

Arkansas has two national forests, and they sell firewood permits differently: the Ozark-St. Francis publishes a cord limit and sells online, while the Ouachita sells only in person at the district that covers the collection area.

Ozark-St. Francis National Forests

Permit on request

USDA Forest Service

Price
On the office page
Household limit
up to 4 CCF (approximately four full-size pickup truck loads or four cords)
Wood you may cut
dead and down wood only
Cutting season
Sold on request
Where to buy
in person at your local district office, Special Forest Product E-Permits portal
Individuals who wish to collect firewood on the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests to burn at home or on private property must purchase a firewood permit.
Permits, Ozark-St. Francis National Forest, USDA Forest Service, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

Rules on this permit

Camping on the forest, you can gather wood for that night's fire with no permit, but only for a fire on the forest.

Individuals camping on the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests are welcome to collect dead and down wood for their evening campfire without a permit. Firewood collected without a permit must be used for a campfire on the Forest; it cannot be taken home or taken to private land.
Ozark-St. Francis National Forests. Read it at the source

Nothing standing may be cut, whatever its condition or size.

No standing trees may be cut - dead or alive - of any size.
Ozark-St. Francis National Forests. Read it at the source

A permit does not open the whole forest; it comes with the areas you may cut in.

Firewood may only be collected in the designated areas provided with the firewood permit.
Ozark-St. Francis National Forests. Read it at the source

Each permit is capped at about four cords and is for personal use only.

Each firewood permit allows for the collection of up to 4 CCF (approximately four full-size pickup truck loads or four cords). The permit is valid for cutting dead and down wood only. A standard firewood permit allows you to cut wood for personal use only.
Ozark-St. Francis National Forests. Read it at the source

The supervisor's office does not sell them, so call the district office first.

Firewood permits are available to purchase in-person at any of our district offices. The Forest Supervisor's Office does not issue firewood permits. Please call ahead to make an appointment or confirm availability.
Ozark-St. Francis National Forests. Read it at the source

Ozark-St. Francis National Forests firewood permit page

Ouachita National Forest

Permit on request

USDA Forest Service

Price
On the office page
Cutting season
Sold on request
Where to buy
the district office of the area you wish to collect in
Permits (such as firewood collection permits) must be purchased at the district office of the area you wish to collect in.
FAQs, Ouachita National Forest, USDA Forest Service, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

Rules on this permit

The permit has to come from the district that covers the ground you want to cut on, not from any office.

Permits (such as firewood collection permits) must be purchased at the district office of the area you wish to collect in.
Ouachita National Forest. Read it at the source

Wood burned on the forest at your own campsite needs no permit.

Wood permits are not needed for usage on the forest. Collect dead and down material for your campfire.
Ouachita National Forest. Read it at the source

Only what is already on the ground, and nothing off a living tree.

Collect only dead wood that is on the ground. You should not cut branches from live trees.
Ouachita National Forest. Read it at the source
Advertisement
Moving firewood

Can you bring firewood into Arkansas?

Arkansas has a quarantine on the books, which means untreated firewood from outside the line may not come in. The rule is written by the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, and it sits below in its own words.

Quarantine

Arkansas restricts moving firewood into or within the state.

Arkansas is under a statewide emerald ash borer quarantine. Firewood of every hardwood species is a quarantined item, so it moves freely inside Arkansas but cannot leave the state except under the federal emerald ash borer rules. The state forestry division separately asks people to burn wood near where it was cut.

Agency
Arkansas Department of Agriculture
Certified or treated wood
The rule does not turn on a certificate
Pests named
emerald ash borer
Due to the expanded range of Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) infestation sites within Arkansas, the Arkansas Department of Agriculture has approved a statewide quarantine for ash items as of March 27, 2018.
Quarantines, Arkansas Department of Agriculture, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

What the rule says

Firewood of every hardwood species is on the quarantined list, not just ash.

Quarantined items continue to include firewood of all hardwood species, and the following ash items: nursery stock; green lumber with bark attached; other material living, dead, cut or fallen including logs, pulpwood, stumps, roots, branches, mulch and composted/un-composted chips (1 inch or greater).
Arkansas Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

The department says plainly that firewood is the one item covering all hardwood.

Firewood is the only quarantined item that relates to all hardwood; all other quarantined items are relative to ash, only.
Arkansas Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

Because the quarantine covers the whole state, the restriction bites at the state line rather than at a county line.

Regulated articles can be moved within the state, but cannot move outside of the state without complying with the federal EAB regulations.
Arkansas Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

Separately from the quarantine, the state forestry division asks people to keep firewood close to its source.

The Forestry Division discourages the movement of firewood over long distances and urges the public to burn wood near its source.
Arkansas Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

The insect named in the Arkansas rule is emerald ash borer. A beetle covers a few hundred yards in a season on its own wings, and several hundred miles in an afternoon in the bed of a pickup, which is the whole reason the rule exists.

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
Nearby

What a cord costs in the states next door

A permit is only good on the land the office manages, so a cheaper cord across the line still has to obey whatever Arkansas says about firewood arriving. The nearest states posting a price by the cord:

  1. Texas$20

Arkansas firewood permit questions

Advertisement

Firewood permits in other states

Arkansas heating oil and propane pricesWhat a gallon costs this winter, and how that compares with a cord.First snow in ArkansasWhen the first measurable snow usually falls, city by city.Arkansas Christmas tree permitsThe other permit the same ranger district sells each winter.Firewood permits by stateEvery price by the cord in one table, with the rule on moving wood.
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

Compiled September 22, 2026 from Permits, Ozark-St. Francis National Forest, USDA Forest Service and the other agency pages linked beside each quote above. Prices, seasons and quarantine boundaries change, so the agency’s own page is the one to read before you load a truck. Every state is in the national firewood permit guide.