Tree waste rules in North Dakota: open burning restrictions, land clearing and the penalty chapter

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It follows chapters 33.1-15-01 and 33.1-15-04 of the North Dakota Administrative Code (the history line of chapter 33.1-15-04 reads effective January 1, 2019) and chapter 23.1-06 of the North Dakota Century Code, all as posted by the North Dakota Legislative Branch.

The general restriction

According to chapter 33.1-15-04, no person may cause, conduct or permit open burning of refuse, trade waste or other combustible material, or run a salvage operation by open burning, except as the chapter's permissible burning section or section 33.1-15-10-02 allows. The definitions chapter says open burning is burning where the smoke goes directly into the air without an adequate stack, duct or chimney. It defines trade waste as waste from construction, any business, trade or industry, or any demolition, including wood, wood containing preservatives, plastics, cartons, grease, oil, chemicals and cinders.

Burning that is specifically authorized

The chapter lists burning trees, brush, grass, wood and other vegetable matter in land clearing, right-of-way maintenance and agricultural crop burning as specifically authorized.
It also lists fires for firefighter training, fires set to remove a fire hazard that cannot be abated another way when the department or its designee authorizes it, campfires and recreational fires, fires for managing forest, rangeland or game when the department approves in advance, and household refuse from a building for no more than one family burned on the property where it was produced, where no collection service is required or directed by a government entity.
Burning is prohibited when the National Weather Service fire index is in the extreme category or when state or local officials declare a burning ban.

Conditions that apply to every permitted burn

The burn must not create air pollution and must not be upwind of or near an occupied building in a way that affects its air.
Dirt on the material must be kept to a minimum, and the material must be dry enough to burn cleanly. Oils, rubber and other materials that produce unreasonable air contaminants may not be burned.
Burning happens only when weather favors smoke dispersion and air mixing, not next to a highway or public road so as to create a traffic hazard, and not next to an airport or landing strip so as to create a hazard.
Burning in such proximity to a class I area, as chapter 33.1-15-15 defines it, may not harm its air or visibility except in an emergency.
Burning must be attended and supervised at all times, and stops if state or local fire officials judge conditions unsafe.

Penalties

As the text of Century Code section 23.1-06-14 reads, a person who willfully violates the air pollution chapter or a rule under it is subject to a fine of not more than US$10,000 per day per violation, or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both. After a first conviction the fine is not more than US$20,000 per day and imprisonment not more than two years. Criminal negligence carries a fine of not more than US$10,000 per day or imprisonment for not more than six months, or both, and any violation of the chapter or a rule under it is subject to a civil penalty not exceeding US$10,000 per day per violation.

For other places see the table on tree waste and chip rules. A neighbouring state is on the Minnesota page.