Permits & rules

Utah BLM petrified wood rules

2026 update: monument boundaries changed. Read 2026 Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears changes: can you collect there now?

Close view of a petrified log with red, orange, blue-gray and cream silica bands — Fossil log in the Morrison Formation at Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. Pretty enough to get you in trouble in a park. Photo: James St. John, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Petrified wood is the piece that gets people in trouble. It looks like a rock. The law often treats it like a limited resource.

On many BLM tracts (casual use)

Federal casual-use collecting can allow a small amount of petrified wood for personal use — commonly described as 25 pounds per day plus one piece, and 250 pounds per year, no permit, no sale, hand tools only.

That is the same cap people quote for common rocks. It is a ceiling, not a target. If a local field office or recreation site posts a tighter rule, the sign wins.

Where that cap does not apply

National parks — zero. Including chips in the parking lot.
Utah State Parks — generally no removal without written authorization. Escalante Petrified Forest State Park is a look-don’t-take site.
SITLA — trust land. Do not use the BLM wood cap.
Some monuments, ACECs, and closed washes — collecting can be banned even on federal land.

Gem-grade and “I could sell this”

Casual use is personal and non-commercial. If the plan is to sell slabs, fill a rock-shop inventory, or take material that is being managed as a special deposit, you are outside hobby collecting. That is a permit question, not a bucket question.

Field test

Confirm the parcel is BLM on the ownership layer.
Confirm you are not in a park, monument, or posted closure.
Stay under the daily cap. One log can blow the limit by itself.
Leave vertebrate bone, artifacts, and anything you cannot identify as common petrified wood.

Petrified wood: on BLM and in the hand

Brown and orange petrified wood fragments lying on BLM ground in southern Utah — Petrified wood on BLM land in the Kanab–Escalante planning area. On ordinary BLM, wood falls under its own limits. Photo: Harry Barber, BLM Utah, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A polished slab of petrified wood showing cream and brown silicified grain — Silicified wood, cut and polished. A general example, locality not recorded. Photo: Shannon Heinle, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Informational only — not legal advice. Petrified-wood rules are easy to get wrong by unit. Check the local BLM field office before you load a log.

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