Montana · Burn Bans

Before

Montana issues fire restrictions per land-management unit (county, national forest, BLM district, FWP site) — there is no single statewide Stage, and the Stage can differ between landowner classes inside the same county. Restrictions have kept easing: Montana DNRC's official Active Fire Restrictions layer, re-read September 29, 2026 (units edited as recently as that morning), shows NO unit at Stage 2, 29 units at STAGE 1 (down from 57 on September 18, 2026) and 499 units carrying no restrictions or closures. Every Stage 1 unit now sits in 1 of 7 counties — Beaverhead, Big Horn, Carter, Hill, Madison, Phillips and Richland — inside 4 DNRC areas (Billings, Dillon, Lewistown and Miles City); Petroleum, Roosevelt and Wheatland counties no longer carry any Stage 1 unit, and BLM land in Beaverhead County (Dillon Field Office) and the BLM Malta and Havre field offices now show no restrictions. The remaining Stage 1 units cover state, private, Montana FWP, Bureau of Reclamation, BLM (Carter County, Miles City Field Office) and Forest Service (Custer Gallatin National Forest in Carter County) ownerships, so confirm the exact unit and ownership, not just the county. Under Stage 1: no building, maintaining or using a campfire except in an agency-provided ring at a developed recreation site, and no smoking except inside a vehicle or building, at a developed site, or while stopped in a cleared area at least 3 feet across; devices fueled solely by LPG/propane with a shut-off valve are allowed. Federal units set their own orders: the Lolo National Forest rescinded its Stage 2 fire restrictions effective September 2, 2026 (forest news release of September 1, 2026). Year-round wildland baseline: no fireworks, no exploding or binary targets, no tracer or steel-core ammunition, and internal-combustion engines need a working spark arrestor. Restrictions are set unit by unit and are changing daily as the season winds down — confirm your exact county and land unit on the DNRC fire restrictions map before any open flame.

Now

Montana issues fire restrictions per land-management unit (county, national forest, BLM district, FWP site) — there is no single statewide Stage, and the Stage can differ between landowner classes inside the same county. Restrictions have kept easing: Montana DNRC's official Active Fire Restrictions layer, re-read September 30, 2026 (units edited as recently as September 29, 2026), shows NO unit at Stage 2, 17 units at STAGE 1 (down from 29 on September 29, 2026 and 57 on September 18, 2026), 511 units carrying no restrictions or closures and 3 units with no restriction recorded. Every Stage 1 unit now sits in 1 of 6 counties inside 3 DNRC areas (Dillon, Lewistown and Miles City); BIG HORN COUNTY NO LONGER CARRIES ANY STAGE 1 UNIT. The 17 Stage 1 units are: CARTER COUNTY — BLM (Miles City Field Office), Custer Gallatin National Forest, state forest and state non-forest land, private forest and private non-forest land, and Montana FWP sites; RICHLAND COUNTY — state and private non-forest land and Montana FWP sites; BEAVERHEAD COUNTY — Bureau of Reclamation land and Montana FWP sites; HILL COUNTY — Bureau of Reclamation land and Montana FWP sites; PHILLIPS COUNTY — Bureau of Reclamation land and Montana FWP sites; and MADISON COUNTY — Montana FWP sites only. Confirm the exact unit and ownership, not just the county. Under Stage 1: no building, maintaining or using a campfire except in an agency-provided ring at a developed recreation site, and no smoking except inside a vehicle or building, at a developed site, or while stopped in a cleared area at least 3 feet across; devices fueled solely by LPG/propane with a shut-off valve are allowed. Federal units set their own orders: the Lolo National Forest rescinded its Stage 2 fire restrictions effective September 2, 2026 (forest news release of September 1, 2026). Year-round wildland baseline: no fireworks, no exploding or binary targets, no tracer or steel-core ammunition, and internal-combustion engines need a working spark arrestor. Restrictions are set unit by unit and are changing daily as the season winds down — confirm your exact county and land unit on the DNRC fire restrictions map before any open flame.