Yes, you can burn leaves in Tennessee. Outside city limits, with a permit, on a day without a burn ban.
That sentence carries three conditions, and each one disqualifies a lot of people. Here is how the whole system works, and where it stops working.
When you need a permit
From October 15 through May 15, Tennessee requires a debris burn permit for open burning of leaves, brush, and other natural debris. The Division of Forestry runs the program. Outside that window, from mid-May to mid-October, the state does not require a permit, though local rules still apply and dry-weather bans can appear any time of year.
The window is not arbitrary. It covers fall leaf drop and the dry seasons when escaped debris burns start wildfires. If you are burning leaves, you are almost certainly burning inside the permit window.
How to get one
The permit is free and takes a few minutes.
- Online at BurnSafeTN.org, seven days a week.
- By phone at 877-350-BURN, weekdays during business hours.
Each permit is valid for one day. Burning across a weekend means a permit for Saturday and another for Sunday. The permit also comes with conditions: the fire stays attended the entire time, you keep water or another way to put it out at hand, and the fire is completely out by midnight.
What you can and cannot burn
Allowed under a debris permit: leaf piles, limbs, brush, and other natural vegetation from your own property.
Never allowed, permit or not: tires, plastics, vinyl, asphalt shingles, household garbage, and construction debris. Burning those is illegal statewide, with fines that run up to $25,000.
City limits change the answer
A state permit does not override city ordinances, and cities are stricter.
In Maryville, burning leaves is illegal inside city limits. Not restricted. Illegal. The city allows some other open burning, but only with a fire department permit that requires a site visit before it is issued. If you are inside Maryville and your plan was a leaf pile and a match, your plan is the city’s loose-leaf pickup program or a cleanup crew.
Other cities set their own rules, and most East Tennessee towns restrict open burning well beyond what the state requires. If you live inside any city limits, call your fire department before you burn anything.
Burn bans override everything
A dry October puts Blount County under a burn ban most years. When a ban is on, your permit is suspended with it. The Division of Forestry and the Blount County Fire Protection District both post current status. Check the morning you plan to burn, not the week before.
The honest math on burning
Burning leaves is legal for a lot of Blount County and it costs nothing but time. Here is what the time actually looks like: rake or blow the whole yard into piles, get a permit that morning, tend the fire until it is dead, and repeat when the second half of the leaves comes down in December. If it rains that week, the pile sits wet and you start over. The homeowners who quit burning rarely quit over the rules. Babysitting wet fires through two cold months is usually enough. Our two-visit leaf removal service does both rounds, November and December, and hauls the leaves off site.
Before you strike the match
Check three things: you are outside city limits, your one-day permit is issued, and no ban is in effect that day. Miss any of the three and the burn is illegal.
Sources, last verified August 19, 2026: Tennessee Division of Forestry burn permit program (tn.gov, BurnSafeTN.org) · City of Maryville burn permit page (maryvillegov.com) · Blount County Fire Protection District (blountfire.org).
The full county picture, including what Maryville and Alcoa do collect: Leaf pickup rules in Blount County.
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