Pocatello, ID Landscaping Rules: Composting (2026)

Pocatello does not license backyard composting or set a bin-size standard, but two chapters of the City Code condition how a compost pile must be kept to stay legal. First, the citywide wildlife-feeding ordinance in section 6.04.260 bans placing food or other attractants anywhere in the city with intent to lure wildlife, and it lists compost piles that are fully contained and made inaccessible to wildlife as one of only eight exceptions; an open pile that draws in raccoons, skunks or deer loses that exception and exposes the owner to the same rules as intentional feeding.

Second, the property-maintenance nuisance chapter in section 8.14.040 requires every yard to stay free of accumulations of material that could breed insects or harbor rodents, snakes or other pests, and it specifically carves out an exemption for properly maintained composting activities from that general prohibition. Reading the two sections together, Pocatello residents may compost in their yards without a permit as long as the pile is enclosed against wildlife access and kept in a condition that does not attract vermin or create blight; an uncontained, poorly maintained pile can be cited under either chapter depending on which condition it violates.