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North Dakota, 2026 season, 1 office

North Dakota Firewood Permits 2026: Prices, Seasons and Rules

North Dakota's public land firewood comes from the Dakota Prairie Grasslands, where a free use permit lets you take wood home, and both the grasslands order and the state quarantine shut the door on firewood from outside the state.

1
Office selling permits
national forest and BLM
On the office page
Price per cord
set district by district
Quarantine
Bringing wood in
North Dakota Dept of Agriculture
A distance is set
How far it may travel
50 miles
Office by office

Where to buy a firewood permit in North Dakota

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

The department says the beetle reached LaMoure County in 2024 and Cass and Burleigh counties in 2026, and it keeps the quarantined county and state list current on its firewood page.

Dakota Prairie Grasslands

Permit on request

USDA Forest Service

Price
On the office page
Wood you may cut
dead and downed trees
Cutting season
Sold on request
Where to buy
contact a Dakota Prairie Grasslands ranger district office
A forest products free use permit is required in order to take firewood off USFS lands for personal use.
Firewood Use and Possession Restrictions, Dakota Prairie Grasslands, USDA Forest Service, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

Rules on this permit

Taking wood home needs a free use permit.

A forest products free use permit is required in order to take firewood off USFS lands for personal use.
Dakota Prairie Grasslands. Read it at the source

Burning what you gather at your campsite needs no permit.

Use of firewood collected and burned onsite does not require a permit.
Dakota Prairie Grasslands. Read it at the source

Firewood from any other state is banned on the North Dakota grasslands.

Any firewood of any species originating from any state other than North Dakota is prohibited on National Forest System lands within the boundaries of the Little Missouri National Grassland, Cedar River National Grassland, or Sheyenne National Grassland.
Dakota Prairie Grasslands. Read it at the source

So is wood from a county any state has quarantined.

Any firewood from a state-quarantined county for the emerald ash borer or other pests such as pine beetle.
Dakota Prairie Grasslands. Read it at the source

Store bought wood has to be certified heat treated and come with the receipt.

Any firewood that is offered for sale to the public by a vendor is prohibited for use on National Forest System lands unless it is certified heat-treated firewood by a State Department of Agriculture, or USDA-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and accompanied by a receipt of purchase that includes name of vendor, date, and quantity of wood purchased.
Dakota Prairie Grasslands. Read it at the source

Gather dead and down wood only, and leave live trees alone.

Gather only dead and down wood locally. Never cut or damage live trees or branches.
Dakota Prairie Grasslands. Read it at the source
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Moving firewood

Can you bring firewood into North Dakota?

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

Quarantine

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

North Dakota keeps an emerald ash borer quarantine that regulates hardwood firewood. Wood from any county or state where the beetle has been found cannot come in, or move out of a quarantined area inside the state, unless it has been treated or inspected and certified.

Agency
North Dakota Department of Agriculture
How far wood may travel
50 miles
Certified or treated wood
Heat treated and certified wood may come in
Pests named
emerald ash borer
Firewood from these areas would be prohibited movement to North Dakota or within North Dakota without going through a treatment or inspected and found free from infestation by the state regulatory agency in the state of origin.
Firewood, North Dakota Department of Agriculture, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

What the rule says

The quarantine covers hardwood firewood along with ash logs, limbs, branches and roots.

In the case of EAB, movement of the pest itself, hardwood firewood, nursery stock, untreated ash logs, limbs, branches, or roots of ash trees is restricted.
North Dakota Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

The quarantined map is simply anywhere the beetle has turned up.

Any state, county, or parish were EAB has been found.
North Dakota Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

Wood from those places needs treatment or an inspection certificate before it moves, into the state or within it.

Firewood from these areas would be prohibited movement to North Dakota or within North Dakota without going through a treatment or inspected and found free from infestation by the state regulatory agency in the state of origin.
North Dakota Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

Leaving a quarantined area with firewood is barred even on an in state trip.

Firewood movement outside a quarantined area, even in state, is prohibited.
North Dakota Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

Hardwood firewood sold in the state has to say where it was cut, and the department treats under 50 miles as the safe distance.

Hardwood firewood is also required to be labeled as to harvested origin.
North Dakota Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

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

  1. Minnesota$5
  2. Montana$5 to $10
  3. South Dakota$5

North Dakota firewood permit questions

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Firewood permits in other states

North Dakota heating oil and propane pricesWhat a gallon costs this winter, and how that compares with a cord.First snow in North DakotaWhen the first measurable snow usually falls, city by city.North Dakota 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 Use and Possession Restrictions, Dakota Prairie 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.