wood burning stove restrictions

You should look at the websites, it usually changes during seasons. I live in Southern California and I could pretty much assume that wherever I go, fires are prohibited.

Hi Jeff,

Some places have altitude-related restrictions, e.g., Yosemite's is 9,600 feet and some of the surrounding wilderness is 10k. These, you can at least plan around.

Desolation Wilderness (west of Tahoe) bans wood fires entirely. It's possible a ranger would let you slide with a little stick-fed cook fire but I'd check beforehand.

When a National Forest is under the highest level fire restrictions due to hazard, a wood cookstove would likewise be banned.

Cheers,

Rick

not to hijack… but do the same restrictions apply to alcohol stoves in these areas?

Alcohol stoves are OK. Basically, they don't allow wood fires. They could make a distinction between wood burning stoves and open fire pits, but they don't. They don't want you collecting wood for your fire.

They have similar restrictions in the Northwest, and they are usually based on proximity to lakes and altitude (typically a much lower altitude than in California).

> do the same restrictions apply to alcohol stoves in these areas?

Typically not… the rules are about stopping people from burning planet material.

Some areas have banned alcohol stoves when there is an extremely high danger of forest fire… but that's fairly rare. Actually, some places (several areas in AZ last year) banned all stoves (even canisters).

–mark

Mainly, you really have to check with the authorities at your particular destination at the time of your trip.

A couple of examples:

At Mt. Rainier National Park this summer for our Wonderland Trail hike, the restriction was "no gathering fuel" not even twigs. So theoretically we could have used a bushbuddy if we had wanted to bring in sticks gathered outside the park (yes, the ranger on the phone confirmed just that), which wouldn't have made sense. We used a liquid fuel Dragonfly for the days we had a group of 7, and alcohol with Caldera Cone for the 6 days it was just the 2 of us.

Last winter at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area in Texas, there was a burn ban in effect, so we brought a couple of alcohol stoves for 5 of us, only to be informed upon checkin that they were requiring all stoves be canister or white gas types. Their criterion was that the stove had to have a valve that would cut off the flow of fuel instantly. This might be a characteristic of a few alcohol stoves, but not most, and not ours.

Yet, several years earlier at Enchanted Rock in February, no "burn ban" in place at that time but the regular "no fires" rule meant "no ground fires" and we were allowed to use a peach-can twig stove as long as it kept the fire from touching the ground. This was before I bought the Bushbuddy.

So it really depends not only on the location but current policy at the location depending on current conditions.

As others have posted, there are two basic considerations: fire danger restrictions and environmentally based restriction. These are imposed from without.

I'd like to raise the idea of a third consideration: what is ethical backpacking practice? In other words, even in areas where there are no mandated restrictions, I would still ask, "is this a place where it would be a sustainable, very low impact practice to have a fire?"

For me, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that at or near tree line, in thinly treed areas where wood is scare, or in overused areas, I won't have a fire even if there are no restrictions against it. Generally, I won't have a fire above 10,000' in the Sierra, rules or no rules. Since a lot of my trips in the Sierra have camps above 10k, a wood burning stove isn't typically what I carry.

Having said that, I have no problem with burning wood in areas where wood is plentiful and the impact of fire is very low. There are plenty of highly worthwhile coastal and front range trips where one will be camping below 10k for which a wood burning stove, absent fire restrictions, would be great. Call me old fashioned, but I sure do like having a wood fire. :)

I've had to wrestle with this issue a bit. When I started hiking, camping, etc. in the 60's, we always used wood, which was a common practice. I don't think I ever used a BP'ing stove until the late 70's. At first I resented the imposition of fire bans but later realized that it's not 1968 anymore and that burning downed wood does have an impact on the health of the places I love to hike.

OK, so long post :) but those are my thoughts FWIW.

It's not just the scarring effects of fire and smoke that is the problem but the scarcity of wood–even twigs–at high elevations. For example, in Wyoming's Wind Rivers, many popular spots have no dead wood available at all, Island Lake near Titcomb Basin being a prime example. As soon as a branch dies, it gets used, even though fires above 10,000 feet are illegal there. That's too bad, because in those areas organic matter in the soil is very scarce, and the thin soil badly needs replenishment from decayed wood.

I like campfires, too, but I prefer to do my backpacking at high elevations where fires are either banned or not a good idea. As a result, I seldom build fires even at lower elevations where wood and fire rings are plentiful–it's too much fuss.

reviving this: planning a winter backpacking trip to Yosemite Wilderness around Ostrander Lake area (8600 ft elevation). i’ve read on Yosemite’s Wilderness in Winter page that campfires are limited to established rock rings, which means in the winter (with rock rings buried under snow) you just can’t have open campfires.

what about a portable wood stove? specifically, like a tent-heating wood stove? would this be allowed?

we could potentially sled in wood for the stove, rather than collect it. and pack out our ashes. anyone know what’s allowed? it’s been hard to get in touch with a park ranger.

In the Grand Canyon, rafters are allowed to have fires in winter only, and within metal pans brought for that purpose.

I don’t know what the authorities in the Yosemite would say about fires in winter.  I know that 35 years ago, on a winter camping trip in the Sierra at about 7,000 feet elecvation, we skied in, set up a big wood base and had a medium-sized campfire all night.  By morning, it had melted 2 feet down into the 8-foot snow pack, but was still going.  The next summer we came back and there was a big black spot in the middle of the road.  We realized those were from our ashes 6 months prior.  We’d skied in along an unplowed dirt road (because, of course) and camped in the flat area of snow over the road.

Point being: where will your ashes end up come summer?  How can you know where they’ll end up when you’re entirely above the snow pack?