Burn season is back in Baldwin County. Clear the paperwork before the pines.

Every fall I get the same call. Someone bought a wooded lot over the summer, the house plans are coming together, and they want the pines down and the pile gone by Thanksgiving. Good news for them: in Baldwin County, burning the debris from clearing land becomes legal again on November 1.

The less fun news is that the bulldozer is the last step, not the first. Before anything comes down, there’s a short stack of rules from the state and your city or the county. None of them are hard. All of them are cheaper to follow than to fix.

Why November matters

Alabama’s open-burning rule lets you burn vegetation and untreated wood from clearing land for a house. But the state revokes that permission every May through October in a dozen counties, and Baldwin and Mobile are both on the list. So in practical terms, land-clearing burns here run November through April.

That changes when to clear. Clear in winter and burning is an option. Clear in July and your choices are hauling the debris off or letting it rot.

The state’s burn conditions

Even in season, the rule has conditions, and a few of them catch people off guard:

• It has to burn where it grew. You can’t haul debris to another property and burn it there.
• Five hundred feet from the nearest occupied house that isn’t on your property. On a lot inside an established subdivision, there’s often a neighbor closer than that, which takes burning off the table no matter the month.
• Vegetation and untreated wood only. No treated lumber, no tires, no construction scraps, no household trash.
• Start between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., and add nothing after 3 p.m.
• Mind the smoke. It can’t create a traffic hazard, and there’s no burning under an air stagnation advisory or a governor’s drought emergency.
• Someone has to attend the fire the whole time.

If the burn will cover a quarter acre or more, call the Alabama Forestry Commission’s burn permit line at (800) 392-5679 first. Cities can add their own limits; Gulf Shores has its own open-burning permit application. Either way, whoever lit the fire stays responsible for damage from the fire or the smoke.

The state’s alternatives are plain: take the debris to a licensed landfill, or let it decompose naturally. Sometimes that’s the better choice even in winter.

Clearing can need its own permit

This is the part buyers skip, because “it’s my land” feels like it should settle it. It doesn’t.

Inside city limits, assume yes until told otherwise. Gulf Shores issues a land disturbance permit for clearing, cutting, excavating, filling or grading land. The application fee is $250 plus any other fees the city sets, with about a ten-day review. If a building permit has already been issued, a separate land disturbance permit isn’t required. Loxley adopted a land disturbance ordinance this year that counts tree removal as land disturbance and applies to single-family lots too. Every town writes its own version, so call the planning office that actually has the parcel.

Unincorporated Baldwin County depends on the district and the flood map. Any land disturbance in a flood zone, or an area the county treats as likely to flood, needs a county Flood Land Disturbance Permit with an erosion-control plan. Zoned districts carry a 30-foot undisturbed setback from wetlands, and some districts add their own native tree protections. If you want the deeper flood side, here’s flood zone math on a Baldwin County lot.

One acre is the state’s line. If the clearing and grading will disturb an acre or more, the project needs coverage under ADEM’s construction stormwater permit, filed online before work starts, with a fee. A smaller lot can still fall under it when it’s part of a larger subdivision plan of an acre or more.

Wet ground changes everything

South Baldwin is flat, and plenty of wooded lots hold water in places. If any part might be wetland, get a delineation before equipment goes in. If wetlands will be filled, the county wants copies of the state and federal permits. Clearing first and asking later is the expensive order.

The order I’d do it in

1. Confirm the jurisdiction: city limits, county planning district, and flood zone.
2. Ask that office whether clearing needs a permit, and what it costs.
3. Measure how much ground the pad, driveway and septic area will disturb.
4. If anything looks wet, get the wetlands answer on paper.
5. Choose the debris plan: burn in season, haul, or leave it to break down.
6. Put it in the clearing contract: who pulls the permits, who handles the debris, and how.

Under contract on land? Make that first call during your inspection period. It’s easier to walk away from a parcel than from a fine.

None of this is legal advice, and rules get rewritten, so check with the office that has jurisdiction before the first tree comes down.

I’m Mandy Longshore with RE/MAX of Gulf Shores, and my family clears and builds on land here. If you’ve got a lot in mind and want to know what it takes to get it ready, call or text (251) 597-5809. No pressure, just honest numbers. I answer my phone.

Sources: Alabama open burning rule, ADEM Admin. Code 335-3-3-.01; ADEM, alternatives for disposal of land-clearing vegetation; Alabama Forestry Commission burn permits; Gulf Shores land disturbance permit; Loxley Ordinance 2026-22; Baldwin County zoning and environmental protection, 2024; ADEM construction stormwater notice of intent.