Moving firewood in Ontario: the emerald ash borer area, the hemlock woolly adelgid municipalities and Dutch elm disease

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It follows the CFIA firewood page and pest directives and the Ontario emerald ash borer page, all read October 9, 2026.

What the CFIA lists for Ontario

The CFIA firewood page, modified September 22, 2026, lists four regulated pests for Ontario: Dutch elm disease, emerald ash borer, hemlock woolly adelgid and spongy moth. It says the agency sets regulated areas, that moving firewood outside a regulated area is prohibited, and that moving firewood from places where regulated pests have been found can violate the Plant Protection Act, with penalties of up to CA$50,000 and/or prosecution. It lists the Asian longhorned beetle as eradicated in Mississauga and Toronto. It also says that in the Ottawa-Gatineau National Capital Region there are no un-infested ash trees left.

The emerald ash borer regulated area

The Ontario emerald ash borer page, updated February 12, 2024, says the beetle was first found in the province in June 2002, probably after crossing at Windsor from the Detroit area, and that the CFIA regulated zone covers a much larger area than the known infestations. It says federal controls restrict transport of infested ash commodities, firewood included, from infested to non-infested areas.

The CFIA regulated areas page, modified August 12, 2026, describes the Ontario area as everything inside these boundaries:

Kind of area	Named in the CFIA description
Cities and divisions	Greater Sudbury, Hamilton, Kawartha Lakes, Ottawa, Prince Edward and Toronto, and the City of Thunder Bay
Regional municipalities	Chatham-Kent, Durham, Halton, Niagara, Peel, Waterloo and York
Districts	Muskoka, Nipissing, Timiskaming and Parry Sound, the Manitoulin district, and parts of Sudbury and Algoma districts including Sault Ste. Marie
Counties	Brant, Bruce, Dufferin, Elgin, Essex, Frontenac, Grey, Haldimand, Haliburton, Hastings, Huron, Lambton, Lanark, Lennox and Addington, Middlesex, Norfolk, Northumberland, Oxford, Perth, Peterborough, Renfrew, Simcoe and Wellington, and the united counties of Leeds and Grenville, Prescott and Russell, and Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry

The page says moving ash firewood out of a regulated area is prohibited, whether for commercial or private purposes such as taking firewood to the cottage or camping. Non-ash firewood can leave a regulated area only through facilities registered under the Emerald Ash Borer Approved Facility Compliance Program. Its activity list for Ontario shows two entries in the period it covers from 2018, both dated March 11, 2025: a detection and prohibition of movement in the District of Timiskaming, flagged in fall 2024 through routine monitoring, and the expansion of the regulated area to that district.

Hemlock woolly adelgid

The CFIA directive D-07-05, sixth revision of August 8, 2025, says the agency confirmed the adelgid in a forested area along the Niagara River near Niagara Falls in its 2019 survey, after earlier confirmations between 2013 and 2015. The 2025 revision expanded the Ontario regulated area to the Regional Municipality of Niagara, Haldimand County, the City of Hamilton and the Township of Alnwick/Haldimand. For regulated areas of Canada, the directive says movement of firewood of all species is prohibited unless the CFIA approves it under a movement certificate setting the conditions.

Dutch elm disease

The CFIA directive D-97-07, effective June 16, 2026, names Ontario among the generally infested provinces and regulates elm logs, lumber and firewood with bark attached. Between generally infested provinces it sets no federal requirement for such material, and says provincial or municipal law may also apply. From an infested province into Newfoundland and Labrador or Alberta, which it calls non-infested, movement of elm material with bark is prohibited.

The general firewood directive

Directive D-01-12 of May 6, 2010 says firewood moved from a regulated area to a non-regulated area of Canada depends on the directive for each pest. It says firewood moved between regulated areas of identical pest distribution needs no movement certificate except for elm. Domestic shipments that miss the movement rules are destroyed, disposed of or returned to the origin at the consignee's expense.

Not published

A separate Ontario provincial firewood movement rule: no official page found on October 9, 2026.
A provincial penalty for moving firewood: not published on the pages read.

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