Tree waste rules in California: the open-burning ban in Health and Safety Code 41800, CAL FIRE burn permits and air district rules

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It follows sections 41800 to 41806 of the California Health and Safety Code and sections 4422 to 4425 of the Public Resources Code as printed on the California Legislative Information site, the CAL FIRE burn permit site, and two California Air Resources Board (CARB) program pages. All were read on October 10, 2026. Local air district rules and city or county fire rules were not read, and the agricultural burning article of the Health and Safety Code (section 41850 onward) was not read.

The ban on burning trees and wood waste

According to Health and Safety Code section 41800, and except as the chapter otherwise provides, no person may use "open outdoor fires" to dispose of a list of wastes that includes trees and wood waste, along with petroleum wastes, demolition debris, tires, tar and other combustible or flammable solid or liquid waste. The same sentence bars open fires for metal salvage and for burning motor vehicle bodies. The section was added in 1975.

What the Health and Safety Code leaves open

Public officers: section 41801 says the article does not limit a public officer's power under other law to set or permit a fire the officer considers necessary. Its list covers preventing a fire hazard that cannot be abated another way, fire-fighting instruction, backfires, abating fire hazards under section 13055, disease or pest prevention where the need is immediate and no reasonable alternative exists, and oil spill remediation.
Homes and cooking fires: section 41806 says the article does not prohibit burning the combustible solid waste of a single-family or two-family dwelling on its premises. It also does not prohibit fires used only for cooking or recreation, or the respectful burning of an unserviceable American flag.
District authorization: section 41802 lets an air district board authorize open burning of wood waste from trees, vines or bushes on property being developed for commercial or residential use. It also covers brush cuttings from clearance done under local fire-hazard ordinances. In both cases the burning is on the property where the material grew, on the conditions in section 41804.

Conditions on district authorization

According to section 41804, burning may be authorized under section 41802 only if the district board finds it more desirable than other means such as removal to sanitary fills. The district must also have criteria to improve combustibility and reduce smoke, and the state board must have approved them. The authorization is a permit from the district's air pollution control officer, valid only on days when the state board has not prohibited agricultural burning under section 41855. The board may adopt rules to review each proposed burn, weighing the amount of waste, the season, ambient air quality and closeness to developed areas. Section 41803 ends authorization under sections 41802 and 41804.5 after a date the state board sets once it finds a feasible alternative disposal method. Section 41805 records the legislature's finding that landfill space is scarce and tells the state board to study alternatives to open burning of tree, vine and bush waste.

Burning in State Responsibility Areas: Public Resources Code

According to Public Resources Code section 4423, no one may burn brush, stumps, logs, fallen timber, slash, grass-covered, brush-covered or forest-covered land, or other flammable material in a state responsibility area, in an area CAL FIRE protects by contract, or on federal land run by the Department of Agriculture or the Department of the Interior, without a written permit from the department or the authorized federal officer. The burn must also follow the permit strictly. The permit applies at any time in Zone A, and in Zone B from May 1 until the director declares the hazardous conditions over, or at any other time in a year when the director has declared unusual fire hazard. The issuing agency may require the permit holder to call and check whether burning is suspended before lighting.

Suspensions (section 4423.1): the director, a county fire warden with the director's approval, or the federal officers for the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and Forest Service may suspend, restrict or prohibit permitted burning, outside incorporated cities, when the fire menace is or is forecast to become extreme. The order can be a telephone message, a press release or a posted order.
Restricted temporary permits (section 4423.2): during a suspension, an officer may issue one where continued burning is essential to public health, safety or welfare. Breaking its terms is a misdemeanor with a fine of not less than US$250, none of which may be suspended.
Void permits (section 4425): breaking the terms of a burning permit makes that permit null and void.
Escaped fire (section 4422): a person may not let a fire they kindled or attended escape their control or spread to another's land.

What CAL FIRE says about burn permits

The CAL FIRE burn permit site says its permits are only valid for residents of the State Responsibility Area, or where CAL FIRE has jurisdiction, and that an address map shows whether a property is inside it. A residential permit is for disposing of vegetation from a single-family or two-family home by burning outdoors in small piles no larger than 4 ft by 4 ft. The site says one residential permit per burn season is enough, and an approved permit is valid on any permissive burn day through April 30, 2027. General Burn (LE-5) and Broadcast Burn (LE-7/8) permits cover large pile burning, agricultural burns, incinerators and larger fuel-reduction burns, and unit staff review them and may inspect the site. For places outside CAL FIRE jurisdiction, it points to the local city or county fire authority and the regional air district.

The CAL FIRE page called Before You Burn says a county showing "burning allowed" is not enough: the day must also be a permissive burn day under the local air district. For small hazard-reduction piles it lists a pile no wider than 4 feet, bare earth cleared 10 feet around the pile, a water supply close by, an adult with a shovel until the fire is out, and no household trash or garbage. It suggests 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for the best smoke dispersion and names composting, mulching, chipping and curbside yard-trimming pickup as alternatives.

Permissive burn days

The CARB program page on agricultural burning says burning is allowed only on Permissive Burn Days, which are issued from the forecast of air quality and weather that affects smoke dispersion, and that all burn permit holders must meet the fire protection agency's requirements. It says the Permissive Burn, No Burn or Marginal decisions are updated by 3:00 p.m. each day for the following day. Its agricultural and prescribed burning page says CARB's burning programs support local decisions on managed burns.

The sources side by side

Instrument	What it says	Page read
Health and Safety Code 41800	Open outdoor fires may not dispose of trees, wood waste and other listed waste.	California Legislative Information
Health and Safety Code 41806	The solid waste of a one- or two-family dwelling may be burned on its premises.	California Legislative Information
Health and Safety Code 41802 and 41804	District board authorization for wood waste on land being developed, by permit, on non-prohibited burn days.	California Legislative Information
Public Resources Code 4423	A written permit is needed to burn brush, stumps, logs and slash in a State Responsibility Area.	California Legislative Information
Residential Burn Permit	Piles no larger than 4 ft by 4 ft, valid on permissive burn days through April 30, 2027.	CAL FIRE

Where California sits in the family

The table on the tree waste and chip rules page gives the one-line version for every place. The pages read put the open-burning ban in the Health and Safety Code and the permit for State Responsibility Areas in the Public Resources Code. CAL FIRE's pages say the permissive burn day is set under the local air district. The rules for moving wood are on the California moving firewood page.