Canyon County, ID Fire Regulations: Outdoor Burning (2026)

Canyon County Code § 02-03-13, part of the solid waste article in the Public Health chapter, bans burning materials that emit toxic contaminants, smoke or particulates for waste disposal, naming household garbage, tires, junked vehicles, plastics, petroleum products, dead animals, asphalt roofing, drywall, treated lumber, insulated wire, hazardous wastes and paint or chemicals. This ban applies only in unincorporated Canyon County; Caldwell, Nampa, Middleton, Greenleaf, Melba, Notus, Wilder, Parma and Star each enforce their own municipal fire codes instead. Even open burning that would otherwise fall into an allowed category under subsection (4)B (recreational fires, training fires, prescribed burns, orchard fires and the like) is shut down entirely under § 02-03-13(4)C whenever the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality's air quality index reaches 75 or higher for any pollutant measured in the county, or whenever sustained ten-minute average winds exceed 20 miles per hour, gusts exceed 35 miles per hour, or the National Weather Service Boise office has a red flag warning in effect anywhere in the county.

The person planning to burn is responsible for checking DEQ's AQI and NWS conditions before igniting. Separately, § 02-03-13(5) bars nighttime burning entirely, from a half hour after sunset until a half hour before sunrise, for field burning, ditch and fencerow waste disposal, weed control and agricultural brush pruning, unless the fire-control authority grants an exemption. The Canyon County Sheriff or a designated code enforcement officer investigates burning complaints under § 02-03-13(4)F.