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Massachusetts, 2026 season

Firewood in Massachusetts: What You May Cut and What You May Move

No public land agency in Massachusetts advertises a personal use firewood cutting permit, and a federal quarantine for the Asian longhorned beetle covers part of Worcester County and limits moving untreated firewood out of it.

Quarantine
Bringing wood in
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
1
Pest named
Asian longhorned beetle
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Moving firewood

Can you bring firewood into Massachusetts?

Massachusetts has a quarantine on the books, which means untreated firewood from outside the line may not come in. The rule is written by the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, and it sits below in its own words.

Quarantine

Massachusetts restricts moving firewood into or within the state.

Part of Worcester County sits inside the federal Asian longhorned beetle regulated area. Firewood from any hardwood species is a regulated article there, and moving it out of the area is limited by state and federal law.

Agency
USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Pests named
Asian longhorned beetle
If you live in an ALB quarantine area, please keep the tree-killing pest from spreading. Follow State and Federal laws. Laws limit moving tree material and untreated firewood in case ALB is inside.
Asian Longhorned Beetle, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

What the rule says

The regulated areas are named county by county, and Worcester County is one of them.

Regulations areas include Worcester County, MA; Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, NY; Clermont County, OH; and Charleston and Dorchester counties, SC.
USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Read it at the source

Do not carry firewood out of a regulated area.

And please don't move firewood out of quarantined areas.
USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Read it at the source

The insect named in the Massachusetts rule is Asian longhorned beetle. 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 near you

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

  1. New Hampshire$10
  2. New York$10
  3. Vermont$10
  4. Connecticut$30

Massachusetts firewood permit questions

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Firewood permits in other states

Massachusetts heating oil and propane pricesWhat a gallon costs this winter, and how that compares with a cord.First snow in MassachusettsWhen the first measurable snow usually falls, city by city.Massachusetts 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 Asian Longhorned Beetle, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection 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.