How do burn permits work in Shasta County?
Residential burning in Shasta County runs on two permissions: a free CAL FIRE burn permit from burnpermit.fire.ca.gov, valid from May 1 each year, and a permissive burn day, checked at (530) 224-8777 the morning you light. Right now neither helps. CAL FIRE suspended all residential burn permits in the county’s State Responsibility Area on June 15, 2026, until further notice.
That suspension is the answer to the question most people are actually asking in August. The rest of this guide covers how the system works when burning is open, the trap that catches people burning piles from cleared brush, and what to do with the material in the months you can’t light anything.
Is burning suspended right now?
Yes. On June 15, 2026, CAL FIRE’s Shasta-Trinity Unit suspended burn permits for outdoor residential burning across the State Responsibility Area of Shasta and Eastern Trinity Counties. The agency pointed at the heavy grass crop from the wet winter drying out fast. The suspension bans residential burning of landscape debris like branches and leaves until CAL FIRE lifts it.
A few things survive a suspension. CAL FIRE can issue restricted temporary permits for essential public health and safety burns. Agriculture, land management, and other industrial burning can proceed if a CAL FIRE official inspects the site and issues a special permit. Campfires in organized campgrounds, and on private property with a campfire permit, sit under separate rules.
There is no published end date. Historically, residential burning in this area comes back after enough fall or winter rain, and CAL FIRE announces it. Until then, cutting, chipping, and hauling are the legal ways to move brush off a property.
What does the permit require when burning is open?
The permit itself is the easy part. It is free, online only, and takes a few minutes: watch a short safety video at burnpermit.fire.ca.gov, apply, and keep the permit with you digitally or on paper. Permits take effect May 1 each year and renew annually.
The conditions around it are where people slip:
| Rule | The specifics |
|---|---|
| Permit | Free, online at burnpermit.fire.ca.gov, valid from May 1, renewed annually |
| Burn day | Permissive burn days only. Check (530) 224-8777 the day you burn |
| Hours | In Redding and below 1,000 feet, ignite between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., out by 5 p.m. The city has published a later start in some materials, so confirm with Redding Fire at (530) 225-4141 |
| Material | Dry landscape debris only. Household trash is never legal to burn |
| Pile size | Inside Redding on lots under an acre, piles stay under 4 feet across |
| On site | Clearance to bare soil around the pile, water and a shovel at hand, an adult present |
| Burn barrels | Banned statewide since 2004 |
City land inside Redding follows the city’s burning rules, and the Redding Fire Department is the right call for anything inside city limits.
Why do piles from a clearing project need a different permit?
This is the trap. Shasta County’s air district rules treat material from brush-clearance projects, fire-hazard reduction work, and land being developed differently from ordinary yard trimmings. Same brush, same pile, but because a project produced it, the burn falls on the district’s stricter land-clearing permit track instead of the ordinary residential one.
So if a crew, or a weekend of hard labor, just cleared your parcel and left drying piles, don’t light them on a dooryard permit. Call the Shasta County Air Quality Management District at (530) 225-5674 first and ask what track your piles fall on. The call costs nothing. The violation doesn’t stay that cheap. Our permit guide for clearing work walks the full permission map, burning included.
What should you do with brush while burning is suspended?
The material still has to go somewhere, and fire is the one tool the county keeps taking off the table for most of the year. Three routes work in any season.
Free chipping. The Shasta County Fire Safe Council runs a chipping program for defensible space work: hand-stacked piles up to roughly 8 by 4 by 10 feet, branches up to 8 inches thick, with some plants excluded, like poison oak and vines. It turns your piles into chips on site at no charge.
Haul it. The Redding Transfer Station takes clean green waste at $34.75 a ton under the city’s current rate sheet. Loading and trucking is the real cost, which is why the math for a full property lives in what lot cleanup costs.
Hire the whole thing. A hand crew cuts, stacks, and hauls in one pass, and nothing on the property ever needs a match. That also keeps you clear of burn day timing, pile rules, and the land-clearing permit question entirely. For most owners doing fire-safety clearing, cut-and-haul in summer beats stacking piles and waiting for a burn window that may not open until winter.
The season matters too. Burn windows here roughly track the rainy months, which is also when cutting conditions are at their best. Our clearing calendar lays out that timing.
The short version
During burn season: free permit at burnpermit.fire.ca.gov, permissive burn day at (530) 224-8777, dry debris only, within the hour and pile rules, and call the air district first for piles that came from a clearing project. Right now: burning is suspended, so chip it, haul it, or have a crew take the whole problem away. We cut and haul by hand across Shasta County, and the estimate is free.
Call or text (530) 238-5077. Free written estimates anywhere within 50 miles of Redding.