Moving firewood in Arkansas: the statewide emerald ash borer quarantine, hardwood firewood and the fire ant quarantine
What the Arkansas Department of Agriculture and University of Arkansas Extension say about moving firewood: the statewide emerald ash borer quarantine set March 27, 2018, which items it covers, where the restriction applies, the imported fire ant quarantine and the Forestry Division's advice.
Checked against the sources at the bottom of this page on October 9, 2026. Rules, fees and pay change: the source has the last word.
This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It follows the Arkansas Department of Agriculture's quarantines page, its forest health page and a University of Arkansas Extension fact sheet, all read October 9, 2026.
The emerald ash borer quarantine
The Department's quarantines page defines a quarantine as a geographic area set up to stop the spread of a new pest, weed or plant disease. It says regulated items can leave the area only after treatment or handling that prevents movement of the pest, with documentation of the treatment, and that quarantined items move freely inside the area.
The page says evidence of emerald ash borer damage was found in Arkansas in early summer 2014. It says the Department approved a statewide quarantine for ash items as of March 27, 2018, because of the expanded range of infestation sites within Arkansas. Regulated articles can be moved within the state, but cannot leave it without complying with the federal emerald ash borer regulations.
| Item | What the Department says |
|---|---|
| Firewood | Firewood of all hardwood species is a quarantined item. The page says firewood is the only quarantined item that relates to all hardwood. |
| Ash items | Nursery stock; green lumber with bark attached; other ash material, living, dead, cut or fallen, including logs, pulpwood, stumps, roots, branches, mulch and chips of one inch or greater, composted or not. |
| Where the restriction bites | Movement out of the quarantined area. Items move freely inside it. |
| Penalty for firewood | Not published on the page. It sends readers to the Department for full quarantine details. |
How the quarantine began
The Department says trapping for the beetle started in 2010, run by its Regulatory Services, the Arkansas Forestry Commission, USDA APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine and the University of Arkansas at Monticello. It says the beetle was first found in six counties in 2014: Hot Spring, Clark, Dallas, Nevada, Ouachita and Columbia. A quarantine was then enacted for those counties and a buffer of surrounding counties.
A University of Arkansas Extension emerald ash borer fact sheet records the stage between. It says that as of September 2014 twenty-five counties were in the quarantine set by the Arkansas State Plant Board, and it lists them from Ashley to Union. It describes movement of infested firewood, nursery stock and ash timber as a way the beetle spreads, and sends readers to the Plant Board site for later changes.
The imported fire ant quarantine
The same page says most of the southeastern United States, including the southern half of Arkansas, is under a quarantine for imported fire ant regulated materials. It names plants with soil, grass sod, hay, straw, pine straw, soil, mulch and dirt-moving equipment as things that carry the ant. It does not name firewood. It says businesses violating the quarantine can face state or federal fines that can reach several thousand dollars, depending on the violation.
What the Forestry Division says
On its forest health page the Forestry Division says many invasive pests of Arkansas forests can be introduced and spread by moving wood, and that most do not travel far alone. It discourages moving firewood over long distances and urges the public to burn wood near its source. That is advice, not a rule.
Not published
- The text of the Plant Board rule behind the quarantine: the quarantines page points to its circular 11 for the regulations, and this page does not reproduce it.
For other states and provinces see the table on moving wood and firewood.