Rhode Island Firewood Rules 2026: What You Can Move

Q: Why does Rhode Island restrict moving firewood?

emerald ash borer and Asian longhorned beetle. Crossing a state line is federal; moving wood inside the state is the department's. "USDA-APHIS_PPQ regulates interstate movement of host material. Intrastate movement is regulated by DEM/DAG, with the state and federal agencies working in concert to regulate specific areas."

Q: Which states have the cheapest firewood permits?

Arizona, $1 to $5. California, $1 to $15. Colorado, $2 to $5. 24 states have a per cord price posted, and the state by state table on the hub page ranks all of them.

Q: Which states restrict moving firewood?

35 of the 50 states have a quarantine or a certified wood rule on the books, and another 13 ask you to buy it where you burn it. The pests behind most of them are emerald ash borer, asian longhorned beetle and spongy moth.

Q: Who sets the firewood rules in Rhode Island?

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. Everything here was read from the agency's own page on September 22, 2026 and each card links its source.

Advisory

Bringing wood in

Rhode Island Dept of Environmental Management

2

Pests named

emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle

Moving firewood

Can you bring firewood into Rhode Island?

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

Advisory

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

The state asks campers and vacationers not to carry firewood to or from other areas and to burn only local wood. Interstate movement of ash and hardwood firewood is a federal matter, and movement inside Rhode Island is the department's.

Agency: Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management
Pests named: emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle

As campers and other vacationers prepare for their upcoming getaways, DEM is urging them to refrain from transporting firewood to and from other areas, and to use only local firewood at their campsites and summer cottages.

DEM Announces Prohibition on the Movement of Firewood Into Rhode Island Due to Invasive Insects Found in Neighboring States, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

What the rule says

Carrying firewood is the likeliest way the emerald ash borer travels inside the state.

The most likely pathway for the spread of EAB within Rhode Island is in infested wood products, particularly firewood. Anyone moving firewood within Rhode Island for recreational or other uses could potentially harbor a variety of non-native insects and diseases, including EAB.

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. Read it at the source

Crossing a state line is federal; moving wood inside the state is the department's.

USDA-APHIS_PPQ regulates interstate movement of host material. Intrastate movement is regulated by DEM/DAG, with the state and federal agencies working in concert to regulate specific areas.

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. Read it at the source

The department says the boundaries and the rules themselves keep changing, so check before you travel.

Locations subject to these regulations are constantly changing, as are the regulations themselves.

Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. Read it at the source

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

Connecticut$30

Rhode Island firewood permit questions

Can you bring firewood into Rhode Island?

The state asks campers and vacationers not to carry firewood to or from other areas and to burn only local wood. Interstate movement of ash and hardwood firewood is a federal matter, and movement inside Rhode Island is the department's. Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management: "As campers and other vacationers prepare for their upcoming getaways, DEM is urging them to refrain from transporting firewood to and from other areas, and to use only local firewood at their campsites and summer cottages."

Why does Rhode Island restrict moving firewood?

Which states have the cheapest firewood permits?

Which states restrict moving firewood?

Who sets the firewood rules in Rhode Island?

Firewood permits in other states

Rhode Island heating oil and propane pricesWhat a gallon costs this winter, and how that compares with a cord.First snow in Rhode IslandWhen the first measurable snow usually falls, city by city.Rhode Island 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 DEM Announces Prohibition on the Movement of Firewood Into Rhode Island Due to Invasive Insects Found in Neighboring States, Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management 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.