Skip to content
Maryland, 2026 season, 1 office

Maryland Firewood Permits 2026: Prices, Seasons and Rules

Cedarville State Forest issues a free firewood cutting permit for one cord of dead and down wood, and Maryland's natural resources department bars campers from bringing their own firewood onto any land it manages.

1
Office selling permits
state land
No fee
Price per cord
on the one office
Quarantine
Bringing wood in
Maryland Dept of Natural Resources
2
Pests named
emerald ash borer, spotted lanternfly
Office by office

Where to buy a firewood permit in Maryland

One office in Maryland sells a personal use firewood permit. Each office posts its own price on its permit page. Every one of them gives the permit away.

Maryland has no national forest and no BLM field office. The state forest system is the place to look, but only the Cedarville page still carries a live firewood permit page; the Savage River State Forest firewood page that the department's own search results still list now returns a file not found, and the Savage River and Green Ridge forest pages say nothing about firewood.

Cedarville State Forest

Permit on request

Maryland Department of Natural Resources

Price
free of charge
Household limit
Each permit allows for the collection of one cord of wood
Wood you may cut
Only timber that is already dead and down may be cut
Cutting season
Sold on request
Where to buy
at Cedarville State Forest Headquarters
Firewood cutting is permitted at Cedarville State Forest with a permit.
Firewood, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

Rules on this permit

The permit is issued at the forest headquarters and costs nothing.

Permits are free of charge and can be obtained from Cedarville State Forest Headquarters or by contacting
Cedarville State Forest. Read it at the source

Cutting is confined to the ground the permit names.

Cutting is only allowed in areas specified by the permit.
Cedarville State Forest. Read it at the source

The wood is for the permit holder's own use and cannot be sold.

Wood is for personal use only and may not be used commercially.
Cedarville State Forest. Read it at the source

Campers may pick up loose sticks and limbs near their site without a permit, and may buy wood on site.

Firewood for camping can be purchased on site. Additionally, campers are welcome to gather sticks and limbs on the ground around their campsite.
Cedarville State Forest. Read it at the source

The same page tells visitors not to carry firewood in from elsewhere.

Please DO NOT bring outside firewood into the State Forest.
Cedarville State Forest. Read it at the source
Advertisement
Moving firewood

Can you bring firewood into Maryland?

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

Quarantine

Maryland restricts moving firewood into or within the state.

Campers may not bring their own firewood onto any land the department owns or manages. Wood has to come from the park, forest or wildlife management area itself or from a vendor local to the campsite. The department ties the rule to the emerald ash borer and to the quarantine the state agriculture department keeps.

Agency
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Certified or treated wood
The rule does not turn on a certificate
Pests named
emerald ash borer, spotted lanternfly
It is the policy of the Department of Natural Resources to prohibit the importation of firewood to campsites on DNR owned and managed lands from the campers’ private supply of firewood.
Firewood Policy, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

What the rule says

Wood must be bought at the site or from a vendor near it.

Firewood must be purchased from the State Park, State Forest or Wildlife Management Area or from firewood vendors local to the campsite.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Read it at the source

The ban covers every property the department owns or manages, not just campgrounds.

Due to the potential threat of the Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), and other invasive beetles, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources has prohibited the importation of personal firewood into all department owned and managed properties.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Read it at the source

Accepting the ban is part of taking the camping permit.

Prohibition will be a condition of the camping permit.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Read it at the source

The state agriculture department separately counts firewood among the articles its spotted lanternfly quarantine regulates.

All plants and plant parts, including: logs, stumps, firewood, yard waste, or any tree parts
Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Read it at the source

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

  1. Pennsylvania$5 to $20

Maryland firewood permit questions

Advertisement

Firewood permits in other states

Maryland heating oil and propane pricesWhat a gallon costs this winter, and how that compares with a cord.First snow in MarylandWhen the first measurable snow usually falls, city by city.Maryland 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 Firewood, Maryland 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.