St. Lawrence County Burn Ban: Spring Dates, Rules, and Penalties

The St. Lawrence County burn ban follows New York’s statewide schedule: brush burning is prohibited everywhere in the county from March 16 through May 14 each year, and local emergency bans can be declared at any other time when conditions turn dangerous.¹ Outside the spring window, most residents can burn downed limbs and branches on their own property, but trash, tires, treated wood, and loose leaves are off limits all year.

The Spring Brush Burning Ban

Under 6 NYCRR Part 215, burning brush, downed limbs, branches, and other yard debris is prohibited statewide from March 16 through May 14.¹ The window exists because the stretch between snowmelt and green-up is when wildfire risk peaks: dead grass, fallen leaves, and dry branches sit exposed with no moisture to slow a fire. The ban applies to every town and village in St. Lawrence County regardless of lot size, and open burning is the single largest cause of wildfires in the state.

The ban lifts automatically on May 15. No permit renewal or announcement is involved.

What You Can Still Burn During the Ban

The spring restriction targets brush and debris disposal, not every outdoor flame. A few categories of fire stay legal year-round if you follow the size and fuel rules.

Small campfires are allowed as long as the fire stays under three feet tall and under four feet in length, width, or diameter, and only charcoal or dry, clean, untreated, unpainted wood is used.¹ Those dimensions are hard limits. A fire that creeps past them is no longer a legal campfire under the regulation, even if you only meant to cook on it.

Charcoal and gas grills, maple sugar arches, and other devices used for actual food preparation are fine. Ceremonial bonfires for celebrations, flag disposal, or religious purposes are also permitted, provided they use only untreated wood or agricultural products and someone stays with the fire the entire time.²

Materials You Can Never Burn

Some materials are prohibited year-round, no matter the season, your acreage, or whether you have a permit:

Trash, garbage, household refuse, and solid waste of any kind, including inside burn barrels.¹
Tires, plastic feed bags, pesticide containers, and other synthetic materials.³
Pressure-treated lumber, painted or stained wood, plywood, particle board, fiberboard, and oriented strand board.¹
Loose leaves and leaf piles, even outside the spring ban period.¹

Kiln-dried or heat-treated firewood is fine. Chemically treated wood produces toxic smoke that carries real health risks for anyone downwind.

Burning Brush Outside the Spring Window

From May 15 through the following March 15, residents of towns with a total population under 20,000 can burn downed limbs and branches on their own property.² Every town in St. Lawrence County sits well under that threshold; the largest, Massena, has a population around 9,500.

The rules still have limits. Branches must be under six inches in diameter and under eight feet in length, and the burning has to happen on-site. You cannot collect brush from other properties and haul it to your land to burn.

One detail trips people up: the population count for each town includes any villages inside it, and brush burning inside a village is never allowed even when the surrounding town permits it.² If you live inside the Village of Canton or the Village of Potsdam, for example, brush burning on your property is off limits year-round.

Farms Get Broader Privileges

Open fires are allowed on contiguous agricultural land larger than five acres that is actively used for farming or horticulture, and these fires are not subject to the spring brush ban.¹ A working farm can burn brush even between March 16 and May 14.

The exemption is narrower than it sounds. Only organic agricultural waste that was actually grown or generated on the property can be burned, and the material has to be capable of burning completely within 24 hours. Pesticides, plastics, and other non-organic materials are still prohibited. Tires used for smudge fires are banned, though liquid petroleum-fueled smudge pots to prevent frost damage are allowed.²

Local Emergency Bans Can Override Everything

The spring ban is predictable. Local emergency bans are not. Towns, villages, and St. Lawrence County itself can impose restrictions beyond state rules whenever conditions warrant.⁴ In August 2025, the county declared an emergency burn ban that allowed only small campfires contained within a fire ring and overrode all existing permits.

Emergency orders can appear with almost no lead time and take effect immediately. Some local jurisdictions also require a permit for fires that would otherwise be allowed under state law. Your town clerk or local fire warden is the right contact for current restrictions. “I didn’t know” carries no weight once an order is in effect.

Checking the Fire Danger Map

The DEC publishes a daily fire danger map covering the entire state. St. Lawrence County is split into two separate Fire Danger Rating Areas: the northern portion falls under the “St. Lawrence” zone, and the southern portion falls under the “Adirondack” zone.⁵ The two halves of the county can sit at different levels on the same day, so check the zone that matches your location, not a county-wide figure.

Each zone gets a rating from Low to Extreme on a five-level color-coded scale. A Red Flag Warning can be issued at any level when temperature, wind, and humidity combine dangerously.⁵ A Red Flag Warning doesn’t automatically create a legal ban, but it signals that a local emergency order is likely coming.

Penalties

Two separate penalty tracks can apply, and in serious cases both can hit the same person.

Because Part 215 was enacted under Article 19 of the Environmental Conservation Law, open burning violations fall under New York’s air pollution control penalties. A first violation carries a civil penalty between $500 and $18,000, plus up to $15,000 for each day the violation continues. A second or subsequent violation runs up to $26,000 plus $22,500 per day.⁶

If the fire reaches or endangers forest land, a separate set of penalties under ECL Article 9 applies. General violations carry a fine up to $250, up to 15 days in jail, or both, plus a civil penalty of $10 to $100.⁷ 8

On top of statutory penalties, a person whose illegal fire damages neighboring property faces civil lawsuits from those neighbors, and local fire departments may pursue restitution for the cost of responding to an escaped fire. The exposure from one burn pile that gets away can easily exceed the fines.

Reporting Illegal Burning

Call 911 for any active fire that poses an immediate danger. St. Lawrence County operates a 911 Public Safety Answering Point through its Office of Emergency Services.

For illegal burning that isn’t an active emergency, such as a neighbor routinely burning trash in a barrel, report it to the DEC’s law enforcement dispatch at 1-844-DEC-ECOs (1-844-332-3267), which operates around the clock.⁹ For wildfire-specific reports, the DEC also staffs a ranger line at 1-833-NYS-RANGERS (1-833-697-7264). Environmental Conservation Officers investigate complaints and have full authority to issue tickets and make arrests for violations of the Environmental Conservation Law.

1
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Open Burning
2
Cornell Law Institute. New York Comp Codes R and Regs Tit 6 215.3 – Exceptions and Restricted Burning
3
New York State Senate. 6 NYCRR Part 215 – Open Fires
4
St. Lawrence County. Emergency Order – August 12, 2025
5
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Fire Danger Map
6
New York State Senate. New York Environmental Conservation Law Section 71-2103 – Violations
7
New York State Senate. New York Environmental Conservation Law Section 71-0703 – Penalties
8
New York State Senate. New York Environmental Conservation Law 9-1105 – General Prohibitions
9
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Environmental Conservation Officer Rosters