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Nebraska, 2026 season, 1 office

Nebraska Firewood Permits 2026: Prices, Seasons and Rules

Nebraska's national forests and grasslands sell a personal use firewood permit at five dollars a cord with a twenty dollar minimum, and the state has no firewood quarantine, only a request to check before you carry wood across a state line.

1
Office selling permits
national forest and BLM
$5
Price per cord
1 priced by the cord
Advisory
Bringing wood in
Nebraska Dept of Agriculture
1
Pest named
emerald ash borer
Office by office

Where to buy a firewood permit in Nebraska

One office in Nebraska sells a personal use firewood permit. A cord runs $5 depending on which office you buy from.

One permit covers the whole Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands, so the same five dollars a cord applies on the Nebraska National Forest, the Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest and the national grasslands the office administers. Personal firewood permits are the one product you can buy and print online.

Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands

2025 season

USDA Forest Service

Price
$5 per cord
Minimum
The minimum purchase price of a permit is $20
Where to buy
online through the Forest Service e-permits system, in person at the district office
Personal firewood permits are measured by cord of wood (4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet = 128 square feet) and sold at $5 per cord.
Permits, Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands, USDA Forest Service, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

Rules on this permit

No permit is needed for a campfire you burn on the forest.

These don't apply to firewood gathered while camping, to be used on the forest during your stay- for that you can harvest anything that's dead and down and as long as you don't leave the forest with it no permit is needed.
Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands. Read it at the source

A permit is what lets you take wood home or cut a tree down.

If you want to leave with the wood, or to cut down a tree to harvest from, you'll need one of these permits, depending on what you're using the wood for:
Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands. Read it at the source

Carry the permit, and it has to name your vehicle.

You must have your permit on your person when harvesting and it must have a description and license plate number for the vehicle you'll be using.
Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands. Read it at the source

Ask the district office for the map of where you may cut before you go.

To get a wood permit contact the District you want to harvest from to inquire about maps of acceptable harvesting areas, any areas that are off-limits to harvesting, or any special rules or regulations, and arrange a time to come in to file the permit and pay the fee.
Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands. Read it at the source

The roadside piles on the Bessey Ranger District are spoken for.

*Note- Piles along the roads in the Bessey Ranger District are currently under contract and may not be used by unapproved visitors for any purpose, whether that purpose requires a permit or not.
Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands. Read it at the source

An online permit has to be printed before you use it.

E-permits and applicable maps must be printed by the purchaser for legal use – a digital permit will not be accepted.
Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands. Read it at the source

Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands firewood permit page

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Moving firewood

Can you bring firewood into Nebraska?

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

Advisory

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

Nebraska rescinded its own emerald ash borer quarantine in 2020 and the federal one ended in 2021, so no rule stops you moving firewood inside Nebraska. The department asks you to call before taking firewood into another state, because other states still have their own quarantines.

Agency
Nebraska Department of Agriculture
Certified or treated wood
The rule does not turn on a certificate
Pests named
emerald ash borer
Please contact NDA prior to moving firewood to another state to determine certification requirements.
Emerald Ash Borer, Nebraska Department of Agriculture, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

What the rule says

Nebraska's own quarantine is gone.

The Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) rescinded the Nebraska EAB quarantine on October 29, 2020.
Nebraska Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

The federal quarantine ended a few months later.

USDA rescinded the federal EAB quarantine on January 14, 2021.
Nebraska Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

Call the department before carrying firewood into another state, because the other state may still regulate it.

However, a number of states continue to maintain state EAB quarantine or firewood specific quarantines. Please contact NDA prior to moving firewood to another state to determine certification requirements.
Nebraska Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

The insect named in the Nebraska 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 Nebraska says about firewood arriving. The nearest states posting a price by the cord:

  1. Colorado$2 to $5
  2. South Dakota$5
  3. Wyoming$5 to $7

Nebraska firewood permit questions

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Firewood permits in other states

Nebraska heating oil and propane pricesWhat a gallon costs this winter, and how that compares with a cord.First snow in NebraskaWhen the first measurable snow usually falls, city by city.Nebraska 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, Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands, 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.