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Iowa, 2026 season, 1 office

Iowa Firewood Permits 2026: Prices, Seasons and Rules

Iowa has no national forest, so cutting wood on public land means asking the area forester at one of the state forests, and the state sets no firewood movement rule, only advice to buy your wood where you burn it.

1
Office selling permits
state land
On the office page
Price per cord
set district by district
Advisory
Bringing wood in
Iowa Dept of Natural Resources
2
Pests named
emerald ash borer, oak wilt
Office by office

Where to buy a firewood permit in Iowa

One office in Iowa sells a personal use firewood permit. Each office posts its own price on its permit page.

Iowa state forests

Permit on request

Iowa Department of Natural Resources

Price
On the office page
Wood you may cut
down and dead wood at Yellow River State Forest
Cutting season
Sold on request
Where to buy
contact the area forester at the nearest state forest
Lumber and firewood is sold to the public at some state forests. Contact the area forester at your nearest state forest for more information.
State Forests, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

Rules on this permit

Not every state forest sells wood, so the answer depends on the forest.

Lumber and firewood is sold to the public at some state forests.
Iowa state forests. Read it at the source

There is no statewide sign up page; you call the forest.

Contact the area forester at your nearest state forest for more information.
Iowa state forests. Read it at the source

At Yellow River State Forest you may gather down and dead wood by hand saw, and no chainsaw or felling is allowed anywhere on the forest.

Chainsaws, both electric and gas, are prohibited throughout the Forest. Firewood may be gathered if it is down and dead with hand saws only. Felling of trees is prohibited.
Iowa state forests. Read it at the source
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Moving firewood

Can you bring firewood into Iowa?

Iowa asks rather than forbids: buy your wood close to the fire you will burn it on. The rule is written by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and it sits below in its own words.

Advisory

Iowa has no statewide ban, and asks that you buy firewood where you burn it.

Iowa sets no rule against carrying firewood around the state. The DNR asks you to buy it where you burn it, and the state department of agriculture requires sellers to label where the wood was cut.

Agency
Iowa Department of Natural Resources
Certified or treated wood
The rule does not turn on a certificate
Pests named
emerald ash borer, oak wilt
Although it is not illegal to transport firewood within Iowa, the DNR encourages you to buy wood from where you will burn it and avoid moving firewood over great distances.
Emerald Ash Borer, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

What the rule says

Moving wood inside Iowa is legal, and the agency asks you not to anyway.

Although it is not illegal to transport firewood within Iowa, the DNR encourages you to buy wood from where you will burn it and avoid moving firewood over great distances.
Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Read it at the source

The advice for campers is to buy at the destination rather than pack wood from home.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) encourages campers to buy firewood from where they will burn it instead of bringing it from home.
Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Read it at the source

Burn what you buy before you leave the campsite.

Make sure to burn all of it at the campsite and not leave it or transport to a new area.
Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Read it at the source

Firewood sold in Iowa has to say where it was cut.

The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship requires all firewood sold or acquired in Iowa to have the county and state of harvest location on the label of packages and the delivery ticket for bulk firewood.
Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Read it at the source

The insects and diseases named in the Iowa rule are emerald ash borer and oak wilt. 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 Iowa says about firewood arriving. The nearest states posting a price by the cord:

  1. Minnesota$5
  2. Nebraska$5
  3. South Dakota$5
  4. Wisconsin$5 to $20

Iowa firewood permit questions

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Firewood permits in other states

Iowa heating oil and propane pricesWhat a gallon costs this winter, and how that compares with a cord.First snow in IowaWhen the first measurable snow usually falls, city by city.Iowa 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 State Forests, Iowa Department of Natural Resources 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.