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Ohio, 2026 season, 2 offices

Ohio Firewood Permits 2026: Prices, Seasons and Rules

Ohio sells personal use firewood permits on the Wayne National Forest and on state forests, and the state department of agriculture runs quarantines that make firewood a regulated article which needs a certificate to leave a regulated area.

2
Offices selling permits
1 federal, 1 state
On the office page
Price per cord
set district by district
Quarantine
Bringing wood in
Ohio Dept of Agriculture
3
Pests named
spongy moth, spotted lanternfly
Office by office

Where to buy a firewood permit in Ohio

2 offices in Ohio sell a personal use firewood permit, 1 of them federal and 1 run by the state. Each office posts its own price on its permit page.

If you buy firewood in Ohio rather than cut it, the state department of agriculture says it has to be sold by volume: "Non-packaged firewood must be sold by the cord or by fractions of a cord. One cord, when properly stacked, should be 8 feet long by 4 feet high and 4 feet wide (128 cubic feet)."

Wayne National Forest

Permit on request

USDA Forest Service

Price
$20 per permit
Household limit
one permit per person per year, authorizing up to 4 CCF, about 5 standard cords
Wood you may cut
dead and down firewood only
Cutting season
Sold on request
Where to buy
in person at a Wayne National Forest office
The permit is $20 and is for dead and down firewood only.
Permits, Wayne National Forest, USDA Forest Service, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

Rules on this permit

Each permit is $20.00 and covers up to 4 CCF of wood.

Each permit costs $20.00, and will authorize the permittee to collect up to 4 CCF (hundred cubic feet of wood), which is approximately 5 standard cords.
Wayne National Forest. Read it at the source

You must be at least 18 to buy one.

Only people 18 years and older are eligible to acquire a firewood permit.
Wayne National Forest. Read it at the source

One permit per person per year.

Each PERSON is limited to ONE firewood permit per year.
Wayne National Forest. Read it at the source

Cut pieces short before hauling them out.

Firewood may NOT be removed in pieces more than 3 feet in length.
Wayne National Forest. Read it at the source

Wood cut inside the spongy moth quarantine area stays inside it.

Firewood collected from within the Spongy Moth Quarantine Area may not be removed from the quarantine area.
Wayne National Forest. Read it at the source

Campers gathering a campfire's worth of dead and down wood need no permit, and none of it goes home.

Permits are NOT required for visitors who are currently camping in the national forest to collect small amounts of firewood for a campfire. The wood collected must already be dead and down. No standing trees of any size, dead or alive, may be cut. No wood may be taken home or to privately-owned land.
Wayne National Forest. Read it at the source

Ohio state forests

Permit on request

Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry

Price
On the office page
Wood you may cut
dead and downed trees along the marked forest roads
Cutting season
Sold on request
Where to buy
contact the state forest manager
Firewood permits can be purchased by the public for a set time frame to remove dead and downed trees along the marked forest roads.
Forest Products, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

Rules on this permit

Permits run for a set window and cover dead and downed trees along marked forest roads.

Firewood permits can be purchased by the public for a set time frame to remove dead and downed trees along the marked forest roads.
Ohio state forests. Read it at the source

The sales exist to clear storm debris and hazard trees.

These public firewood sales provide a venue for forest staff to dispose of wood from storm debris and hazard trees.
Ohio state forests. Read it at the source

Ask the individual forest, since there is no statewide sign up page.

Contact a state forest manager if you are interested in obtaining a firewood permit.
Ohio state forests. Read it at the source
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Moving firewood

Can you bring firewood into Ohio?

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

Quarantine

Ohio restricts moving firewood into or within the state.

Firewood is a regulated article under Ohio's spongy moth, spotted lanternfly and Asian longhorned beetle quarantines, so wood moving out of a regulated area needs an official certificate. The spotted lanternfly quarantine went statewide on Feb 17, 2026.

Agency
Ohio Department of Agriculture
Certified or treated wood
Heat treated and certified wood may come in
Pests named
spongy moth, spotted lanternfly, Asian longhorned beetle
As stated in rule 901:5-52-01 of the Administrative Code, no person shall move from any regulated area as defined by rule 901:5-52-04 of the Administrative Code any regulated article as defined by rule 901:5-52-03 of the Administrative Code except in accordance with the conditions specified herein.
Rule 901:5-52-05, Conditions of movement, Ohio Administrative Code, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

What the rule says

Firewood is named outright among the articles the spongy moth quarantine regulates.

Logs, pulpwood, slabwood, firewood, and wood chips.
Ohio Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

Moving regulated wood out of a regulated area, or through unregulated Ohio, takes a certificate.

A certificate must accompany the movement of regulated articles from any regulated area into or through any non-regulated area in Ohio.
Ohio Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

Inside a regulated area you may move wood around freely, as long as you do not cross unregulated ground.

There are no restrictions imposed on the movement of regulated articles within regulated areas or within federal quarantine areas, provided they do not transit any non-regulated areas in Ohio.
Ohio Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

The spotted lanternfly quarantine now covers the whole state.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) issued a statewide quarantine in Ohio for the invasive Spotted Lanternfly (SLF) effective February 17, 2026.
Ohio Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

Firewood is a regulated article for the Asian longhorned beetle too, along with any hardwood material.

(A) Firewood, stumps, roots, branches, debris and other material living, dead, cut, or fallen from all hardwood species
Ohio Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

The insects and diseases named in the Ohio rule are spongy moth, spotted lanternfly and 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 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 Ohio says about firewood arriving. The nearest states posting a price by the cord:

  1. Michigan$4
  2. Pennsylvania$5 to $20

Ohio firewood permit questions

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Firewood permits in other states

Ohio heating oil and propane pricesWhat a gallon costs this winter, and how that compares with a cord.First snow in OhioWhen the first measurable snow usually falls, city by city.Ohio 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, Wayne National Forest, 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.