Moving firewood in Saskatchewan: the Dutch elm disease area, the elm firewood ban and elm log restrictions

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It follows the Government of Saskatchewan pages on Dutch elm disease, its March 25, 2026 news release and two of its publications, with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) firewood page, all read October 9, 2026.

The federal side

The CFIA firewood page, modified September 22, 2026, lists Dutch elm disease as the regulated pest for Saskatchewan. 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 prosecution. Manitoba's firewood page, read October 9, 2026, adds that barked pine wood cannot be brought into Manitoba from parts of Saskatchewan unless it has been heat treated.

What the province prohibits

The province's Dutch elm disease page carries a section headed "No Elm Firewood in Saskatchewan". It says it is illegal to transport, store or buy elm firewood, and its list of ways to prevent the disease adds not to sell or use it. The March 25, 2026 news release says it is illegal to use, transport, store or sell elm firewood, and that elm logs are covered by provincial regulations on use, transport, storage and sale.

Subject	What the Saskatchewan pages say
Elm firewood	Illegal to transport, store, buy, sell or use
Elm logs	Use, transport, storage and sale restricted by provincial regulations
Pruning ban	Elm pruning prohibited from April 1 to August 31 each year. Commercial elm pruners must have completed a recognized training program or be supervised by someone who has.
Removal	A whole elm can be removed at any time of year, with the wood disposed of in the designated place for the area
Authorization	For exceptional circumstances in which elm trees, seedlings included, must be pruned, stored, used, sold or transported, authorization has to be applied for first, through the ministry's Inquiry Centre at 1-800-567-4224 or the municipality's designated inspecting officer

The page also lists a Minister's designation order. It describes the order as designating the native elm bark beetle, the European elm bark beetle and Dutch elm disease as pests likely to damage trees, and as designating all lands in Saskatchewan south of the 55th parallel as likely to harbour them. The order itself was not opened for this page.

Where elm wood goes

The province's elm wood disposal flyer says not to store, use, sell or transport elm wood for any purpose except to the nearest disposal site, and calls this "against the law". It says wood goes to the nearest elm disposal site during its next operating hours after cutting. In a rural or northern municipality, it says elm wood from pruning or removal can be disposed of on the land where it was cut, provided all the bark is burned where burning is allowed or the wood is buried at least 25 cm (10 inches) deep. The flyer leaves blanks for each municipality's disposal site, telephone number and cost, so those details come from the municipality.

The province's Dutch elm disease fact sheet repeats that elm firewood is not stored, transported or used. It says the first case in Saskatchewan was a single tree in Regina in 1981, that the next detection was in 1990 in a park near Estevan, and that the disease has spread through the eastern half of the province. The province's 2025 known extent map is marked as sourced from the Ministry of Environment in November 2025 and as showing general areas of the disease in rural Saskatchewan without claiming to be fully accurate.

Not published

Penalties for breaking the elm firewood rule: not published on the pages read.
The regulation text: not opened. The pages read call it provincial regulations without a title or section number.

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