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West Virginia, 2026 season, 1 office

West Virginia Firewood Permits 2026: Prices, Seasons and Rules

The Monongahela National Forest sells a personal use firewood permit in person at its ranger district offices, and a state quarantine run by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture treats firewood as a regulated article that cannot be carried from a regulated county into an unregulated one without paperwork.

1
Office selling permits
national forest and BLM
On the office page
Price per cord
set district by district
Quarantine
Bringing wood in
West Virginia Dept of Agriculture
1
Pest named
spongy moth
Office by office

Where to buy a firewood permit in West Virginia

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

Monongahela National Forest

Permit on request

USDA Forest Service

Price
Firewood permits cost $20 each and authorize you to cut up to five standard cords of firewood from a specific ranger district.
Household limit
up to five standard cords of firewood from a specific ranger district
Wood you may cut
Only dead and down trees may be collected for campfire wood or cut for firewood.
Cutting season
Jan 1 to Dec 31
Where to buy
in person at a ranger district office by appointment
Firewood permits cost $20 each and authorize you to cut up to five standard cords of firewood from a specific ranger district.
Firewood, Monongahela National Forest, USDA Forest Service, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

Rules on this permit

Only dead and down wood counts. No standing tree may be cut, alive or not.

Only dead and down trees may be collected for campfire wood or cut for firewood. No standing trees, dead or alive, of any size may be cut.
Monongahela National Forest. Read it at the source

Cut pieces to four feet or shorter.

Firewood must be cut into pieces 4 feet, or less, in length.
Monongahela National Forest. Read it at the source

Wilderness and active timber sales are closed to cutting, and painted trees are already sold.

Firewood cutting is not allowed in designated Wilderness . Firewood cannot be gathered in active timber sales. Trees that are painted are purchased timber and cannot be cut up for firewood.
Monongahela National Forest. Read it at the source

Stay back from streams.

Firewood cutting is not allowed 100 feet (about 50 steps) on both sides of streams that have flowing water and 50 feet (about 25 steps) on both sides of streams that have flowing water only part of the year.
Monongahela National Forest. Read it at the source

A permit covers one ranger district, and a second district needs a second permit.

Each permit allows you to cut firewood from one ranger district. If you wish to cut firewood on another district, you must purchase another, separate permit for that district.
Monongahela National Forest. Read it at the source

Campers on forest land can pick up wood for a campfire without a permit, but that wood stays on the forest.

You do not need a firewood permit if you are camped on National Forest System land and are collecting wood for campfire use. Campfire wood cannot be taken home.
Monongahela National Forest. Read it at the source

Monongahela National Forest firewood permit page

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Moving firewood

Can you bring firewood into West Virginia?

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

Quarantine

West Virginia restricts moving firewood into or within the state.

West Virginia runs its own spongy moth quarantine, which counts firewood among the outdoor household articles it regulates. Wood cannot be moved out of a quarantined county into an unregulated part of the state without a certificate, a limited permit or an inspection report attached to it.

Agency
West Virginia Department of Agriculture
Certified or treated wood
The rule does not turn on a certificate
Pests named
spongy moth
Under authority of Chapter 19, Article 12, Section 6 of the Code of West Virginia, as amended, a quarantine is hereby established to regulate the movement of certain articles capable of transporting the highly destructive insect known as the gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.), into uninfested or unregulated areas of the State, unless such articles comply with the conditions specified herein.
West Virginia Gypsy Moth Quarantine, West Virginia Department of Agriculture, read September 22, 2026. Read it at the source

What the rule says

Firewood is named in the list of outdoor household articles the quarantine regulates.

Outdoor household articles - Articles associated with a household that have been kept outside the home including, but not restricted to, outdoor furniture, barbecue grills, doghouses, boats, hauling trailers, garden tools, tents, awnings, firewood and recreational vehicles and associated equipment.
West Virginia Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

Nothing regulated leaves a quarantined county for an unregulated one without paperwork attached.

Regulated articles may not be moved from a regulated area to an unregulated area of the state unless a certificate, limited permit, or outdoor household article gypsy moth inspection report has been issued and attached to the regulated article in accordance with the provisions set forth in Sections VII and VIII of these regulations.
West Virginia Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

The regulated area is any county the state or federal quarantine covers, or a county another state has quarantined.

Any area in which gypsy moth is known to occur and is regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture Gypsy Moth Quarantine (7CFR 301.45), the West Virginia Department of Agriculture Gypsy Moth Quarantine, or a gypsy moth quarantine or legislation enacted by another state.
West Virginia Department of Agriculture. Read it at the source

The insect named in the West Virginia rule is spongy 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
When to cut

Firewood cutting season in West Virginia

Each office sets its own window, and most of them close it when fire danger rises or the roads soften. The dates that office has posted:

  • Monongahela National ForestJan 1 to Dec 31

Offices close their gates for weather and fire restrictions inside these windows, so the office’s own page is the one to check the week you go.

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 West Virginia says about firewood arriving. The nearest states posting a price by the cord:

  1. Pennsylvania$5 to $20

West Virginia firewood permit questions

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Firewood permits in other states

West Virginia heating oil and propane pricesWhat a gallon costs this winter, and how that compares with a cord.First snow in West VirginiaWhen the first measurable snow usually falls, city by city.West Virginia 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, Monongahela 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.