Tree waste rules in Wisconsin: open burning of brush, stumps and wood waste

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. It follows the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) pages on open burning.

The general rule

The DNR page Know before you burn says air quality and waste management rules generally prohibit open burning, with some limited exceptions. It says DNR requirements are the minimum, and that local government or fire authorities may add more. The DNR summary of regulations names three DNR programs: air management, which lists its exceptions in NR 429.04; waste and materials management, which allows burning certain woody material only at licensed woodburning facilities under NR 502.11; and forestry, whose burning permit rules apply in the intensive and extensive fire control areas under chapter NR 30.

Households and businesses

State regulations allow individual households to burn small amounts of dry household rubbish and small quantities of dry leaves and plant clippings unless local ordinance prohibits it. The waste must come from normal household activities and be burned on the household's own property. Demolition and in-home business operations, including farm and landscaping operations, are not normal household activities.

The page says Wisconsin's recycling laws prohibit businesses and municipalities from burning yard or landscape waste, rubbish and trash, except at waste to energy facilities. It adds that commercial and government entities generally cannot burn clean wood waste, including brush, unless they have a woodburning facility license, with limited exceptions for land clearing and wood waste.

Land clearing, rights-of-way and one-time burns

Rights-of-way outside Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth, Washington and Waukesha counties: tree trunks, limbs and stumps may be burned to clear and maintain them. Brush under 6 inches thick may be burned only if it is an invasive species, and all wood waste must be burned on the property it came from.
In those seven counties, trunks, limbs, stumps and invasive brush may be burned only by methods the DNR Air Program approves.
Agriculture and silviculture: brush under 6 inches thick and weeds may be burned only if invasive. Trunks, limbs and stumps need methods approved by the Air Program.
Other land clearing: trunks, limbs and stumps may be burned with approved methods, and brush under 6 inches only if invasive.
Natural disasters: brush under 6 inches may be burned with approval from the DNR Waste and Materials Management Program and approved methods.
One-time burning of dry, unpainted, untreated wood needs confirmation from the Air Program.

Materials that are prohibited

The DNR says burning of the following is prohibited under any condition: asphalt, painted or whitewashed barn boards, carpet, construction and demolition materials, electronics, foam, furniture and mattresses, garbage, metal, oily rags and filters, plastics, rubber, shingles and tar paper, tires, vinyl siding, wire, and wood that has been painted, treated, laminated or glued.

Options other than burning

The DNR page Alternatives to burning lists options for vegetative waste, which it describes as leaves, brush, pine needles, plant clippings, slash, grass, stumps, garden debris and trees. They are leaving it in place, municipal collection or drop-off, composting at home, using it as wildlife habitat, and chipping. For large amounts of wood waste it points to a professional wood waste chipper, and says chippers can sell the chipped wood as landscaping mulch, boiler fuel, animal bedding and erosion control material. It says municipal composting, chipping or landspreading is always preferred to open burning, and burning brush at a licensed municipal facility is preferred to burning it at home.

For other places see the tree waste rules overview.