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Maine, 2026 season, 1 office

Maine Firewood Permits 2026: Prices, Seasons and Rules

Maine's Public Lands require a permit to cut firewood, and an emergency order bars bringing untreated firewood into the state unless it carries a heat treatment certificate.

1
Office selling permits
state land
On the office page
Price per cord
set district by district
Quarantine
Bringing wood in
Maine Bureau of Forestry
A distance is set
How far it may travel
50 miles
Office by office

Where to buy a firewood permit in Maine

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

The 50 mile line and the burn it within 24 hours line come from two other Maine DACF pages: the state park rules at https://www.maine.gov/dacf/parks/park_passes_fees_rules/park_rules.shtml and the Maine Forest Service firewood page at https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/forest_health/invasive_threats/firewood.shtml.

Maine's Public Lands

Permit on request

Bureau of Parks and Lands

Price
On the office page
Cutting season
Sold on request
Where to buy
by calling the Public Lands region office for the area you want to cut in
Permits Required for: Firewood Cutting
Gathering, Hunting, Fishing and Gathering, Bureau of Parks and Lands, Maine DACF, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

Rules on this permit

Gathering of any kind is allowed on the Public Lands only, not in state parks or at historic sites.

Gathering is only allowed on Maine's Public Lands, not on Maine State Parks and Historic Sites which do not allow gathering or collecting of any kind.
Maine's Public Lands. Read it at the source

Berries, fiddleheads and mushrooms need no permit, but firewood does, along with fir tips, ash and birch bark.

No Permits needed for: Berry picking Fiddlehead picking Mushroom collecting Permits Required for: Firewood Cutting Fir Tipping Ash Trees Birch Bark
Maine's Public Lands. Read it at the source

Take only part of what is there.

Gather but leave enough to reseed and feed wildlife.
Maine's Public Lands. Read it at the source

Which office issues the permit depends on where you plan to cut, and the bureau's main office will point you to the right one.

If after looking at the map you are unsure which Public Lands region office to call, call the main office for the Bureau of Parks and Lands at (207) 287-3821 for assistance.
Maine's Public Lands. Read it at the source
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Moving firewood

Can you bring firewood into Maine?

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

Quarantine

Maine restricts moving firewood, and its agencies ask that wood travel no more than 50 miles.

An emergency order bars anyone from bringing firewood into Maine unless its core was heated to at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit for 75 minutes and it comes with a treatment certificate or label. Inside the state, the parks rules ask people not to move firewood more than 50 miles.

Agency
Maine Bureau of Forestry
How far wood may travel
50 miles
Certified or treated wood
Heat treated and certified wood may come in
Pests named
emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle, southern pine beetle, browntail moth, spongy moth, spotted lanternfly, oak wilt, Dutch elm disease
No person shall bring firewood into Maine unless it has been treated so that its core temperature has reached at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit for 75 minutes and is accompanied by a treatment certificate or label from a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) qualified treatment facility, or similar documentation of treatment from an analogous state agency in accordance with the USDA Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) Treatment Manual, or from analogous Canadian authorities attesting such treatment.
Emergency Order Restricting Transportation of Firewood into the State of Maine, Maine Bureau of Forestry, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

What the rule says

The order covers all firewood coming into the state or passing through it.

Regulated Article. All firewood being, or has been, transported into or through Maine.
Maine Bureau of Forestry. Read it at the source

Anyone moving firewood inside Maine may be asked where it came from.

Prohibition on Intrastate Movement of Certain Firewood. Persons transporting firewood within Maine may be required to identify the source of the firewood in order to show compliance with this Section.
Maine Bureau of Forestry. Read it at the source

Forestry and parks officials may inspect firewood on the road, at a seller, or in a campground.

Officials from the Maine Bureau of Forestry and from the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands may inspect firewood being transported into or through Maine, being sold, or being used at campgrounds, and obtain information concerning the source of that firewood.
Maine Bureau of Forestry. Read it at the source

The parks rules put a distance on it even for wood that never left the state.

Do not transport firewood more than 50 miles, even in Maine.
Maine Bureau of Forestry. Read it at the source

If you already brought wood in, burn it quickly rather than carrying it further.

If you’ve already brought firewood into Maine, don’t leave it or bring it home – burn it within 24 hours!
Maine Bureau of Forestry. Read it at the source

The insects and diseases named in the Maine rule are emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle, southern pine beetle, browntail moth, spongy moth, spotted lanternfly, oak wilt and Dutch elm disease. 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 Maine says about firewood arriving. The nearest states posting a price by the cord:

  1. New Hampshire$10

Maine firewood permit questions

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Firewood permits in other states

Maine heating oil and propane pricesWhat a gallon costs this winter, and how that compares with a cord.First snow in MaineWhen the first measurable snow usually falls, city by city.Maine 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 Gathering, Hunting, Fishing and Gathering, Bureau of Parks and Lands, Maine DACF 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.