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South Carolina, 2026 season, 1 office

South Carolina Firewood Permits 2026: Prices, Seasons and Rules

The Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests sell a personal use firewood permit at every district office, South Carolina's state forests sell none, and the state's firewood rule is advice rather than law: burn wood cut within fifty miles of the fire.

1
Office selling permits
national forest and BLM
On the office page
Price per cord
set district by district
Advisory
Bringing wood in
South Carolina Forestry Commission
A distance is set
How far it may travel
50 miles
Office by office

Where to buy a firewood permit in South Carolina

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

South Carolina's state forests do not require a firewood permit and do not sell one; the Forestry Commission says to call the forest's director, who sometimes has an area open for firewood removal.

Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests

Permit on request

USDA Forest Service

Price
The minimum cost for a permit is $20
Minimum
The minimum cost for a permit is $20
Wood you may cut
only dead and down wood may be taken
Cutting season
Sold on request
Where to buy
in person at any district ranger office
Firewood collection permits are available at all district offices for personal use. The minimum cost for a permit is $20 and only dead and down wood may be taken.
Permits, Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests, USDA Forest Service, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

Rules on this permit

Every district office on both forests sells the permit, and it is for your own use.

Firewood collection permits are available at all district offices for personal use.
Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests. Read it at the source

Twenty dollars is the floor, and standing trees are not on the table.

The minimum cost for a permit is $20 and only dead and down wood may be taken.
Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests. Read it at the source

The same offices sell permits for other forest products.

Permits are also available at all district offices for miscellaneous forest products.
Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests. Read it at the source

Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests firewood permit page

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Moving firewood

Can you bring firewood into South Carolina?

South Carolina asks rather than forbids: buy your wood close to the fire you will burn it on. The rule is written by the South Carolina Forestry Commission, and it sits below in its own words.

Advisory

South Carolina has no statewide ban, and asks that firewood travel no more than 50 miles.

South Carolina asks people to burn wood cut within fifty miles of the fire and names five pests that travel in firewood. The Forestry Commission describes an emerald ash borer quarantine on hardwood firewood as something the State Crop Pest Commission is likely to establish, not as a rule in force.

Agency
South Carolina Forestry Commission
How far wood may travel
50 miles
Pests named
emerald ash borer, redbay ambrosia beetle, Asian long-horned beetle, walnut twig beetle, gypsy moth
Use local firewood, firewood grown and cut within 50 miles of where it will be burned.
Don't Move Firewood, South Carolina Forestry Commission, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

What the rule says

Fifty miles is the distance the state asks you to stay inside.

Use local firewood, firewood grown and cut within 50 miles of where it will be burned.
South Carolina Forestry Commission. Read it at the source

If you have already hauled wood somewhere, burn it rather than carry it on.

If you have already moved firewood, the best way to dispose of it is to burn it completely.
South Carolina Forestry Commission. Read it at the source

Do not try to treat the wood chemically.

DO NOT treat fire wood with pesticides! Burning treated wood could cause serious health problems!
South Carolina Forestry Commission. Read it at the source

The Forestry Commission's emerald ash borer page describes what a quarantine would cover, in the future tense.

Material that falls under a quarantine include EAB insects themselves, ash trees, limbs, branches, stumps, roots, logs, lumber, chips and bark, and again, ALL hardwood firewood.
South Carolina Forestry Commission. Read it at the source

That page also gives the state's definition of firewood.

Firewood is defined as any hardwood species cut to less than 4 feet in length.
South Carolina Forestry Commission. Read it at the source

The insects and diseases named in the South Carolina rule are emerald ash borer, redbay ambrosia beetle, Asian long-horned beetle, walnut twig beetle and gypsy moth. 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 South Carolina says about firewood arriving. The nearest states posting a price by the cord:

  1. Georgia$5

South Carolina firewood permit questions

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Firewood permits in other states

South Carolina heating oil and propane pricesWhat a gallon costs this winter, and how that compares with a cord.First snow in South CarolinaWhen the first measurable snow usually falls, city by city.South Carolina 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, Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests, 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.