Moving firewood in Maine: import ban, retail proof and forest quarantines

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It follows the Maine Forest Service, part of the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, and the Emergency Order its Bureau of Forestry issues under 12 M.R.S. section 8305.

The ban in plain terms

The Maine Forest Service firewood page says untreated out-of-state firewood is banned. It adds that even moving firewood within Maine can spread pests. On its words, 50 miles is generally too far for untreated firewood, and 10 miles or less is best.

The page says the Director of the Division of Forestry issued the first Emergency Order on August 31, 2010. That order was set to expire after 120 days and has been reissued since.

What the Emergency Order says

The Maine Forest Service posts its Emergency Order text, which describes the regulated article as all firewood being, or having been, transported into or through Maine. It sets these terms.

No person shall bring firewood into Maine unless it reached a core temperature of at least 160 degrees F for 75 minutes. It must travel with a treatment certificate or label from a USDA qualified treatment facility, with similar documentation from an analogous state agency under the USDA treatment manual, or with documentation from analogous Canadian authorities.
A person stopped at the New Hampshire border with firewood who cannot show prior treatment or a local Maine source may be required to hand the wood to Bureau of Forestry officials.
Retail sellers must be able to show by bill of sale, harvest notification report, trip ticket or another record that firewood came from an in-state source, or that out-of-state wood came with a treatment certificate or label. Without that evidence the wood is subject to confiscation.
Persons moving firewood within Maine may be required to identify its source.

The Bureau may issue case-by-case variances. The order says it will approve one only if it decides the wood poses no threat of bringing in emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle or similar pests, because of verifiable local origin and handling or other treatment.

Inspections, disposal and campgrounds

Officials of the Bureau of Forestry and the Bureau of Parks and Lands may inspect firewood in transit, on sale or in use at campgrounds. Out-of-state wood of unknown origin without a certificate or label is to be disposed of with the least movement possible, burned on site if possible or taken to the nearest Bureau facility. The order asks campground owners to post a warning notice at a central location.

The Forest Service page tells people who have already brought firewood into Maine to burn it within 24 hours. It gives a phone number to report suspected illegal firewood movement and regional dispatch numbers for disposal help.

Penalty

The order says that under 12 M.R.S. section 9701 a violation is a civil violation with a forfeiture not to exceed US$1,000. Each day of a violation counts as a separate offense.

Forest quarantines

The Maine Forest Service quarantine information page lists four state forestry quarantines: emerald ash borer, European larch canker, hemlock woolly adelgid and white pine blister rust. It lists spongy moth as a federal quarantine. It also announces draft rulemaking to repeal the emerald ash borer and European larch canker quarantines, with a written comment deadline of August 28, 2026. The page has a searchable table by town and county. A filled cell means the place is under regulation for that organism.

For other states and provinces see the table on moving wood and firewood.