New Brunswick Crown Land Camping Rules: RVs, Fires, Closures

New Brunswick is relaxed about people using its Crown land and strict about a few specific things. You don't need a permit to hike, paddle, pick berries or camp overnight on public land, and the province doesn't charge visitors a fee. What it does regulate closely is where trailers and RVs go, what happens to wastewater, and fire. In a dry summer it will close the woods altogether. This guide covers what the province says about camping on Crown land, the rules that sit on top of it, and the places that look like Crown land but follow other rules.

The starting point: occasional use needs no permission

The Department of Natural Resources describes Crown lands as public lands and says that "occasional use does not require authorization". Its examples are hiking, biking, picnicking, geocaching, canoeing and overnight camping. That's the whole legal basis for a weekend tent on Crown land: there's no camping permit to buy, no registration and no distinction between residents and visitors.

Anything beyond occasional use does need authorization. Cutting or removing trees or other vegetation requires a permit. A camp you return to every season, a structure, a dock or a road improvement needs a lease, a licence of occupation or a camp lot (more on those below). Upgrading or repairing a forest road, including cutting trees to do it, goes through the Land Use Application Service Centre at 1-888-312-5600.

How long can you stay?

This is where New Brunswick differs from its neighbours. The province says camping on Crown land is allowed "for short periods" and for "a limited time", and it doesn't put a number on either. There's no 14-day rule as in British Columbia and no 21-day rule as in Ontario. If you read a specific day count for New Brunswick online, it's almost certainly borrowed from another province.

In practice, "short periods" means a camping trip, not a summer residence. A week at a lake is camping. A trailer that sits on the same clearing from May to October, with a woodpile and a shed, is occupation, and the department can order it removed. If you want a recreational base you can come back to, the proper route is a camp lot lease.

The rules for every Crown land camper

The department's published camping rules are short. Campers must:

use Crown lands and their resources at their own risk, and plan accordingly;
respect other users, and not restrict access to roads, trails, waterways or other Crown lands;
respect plants, animals, fish and fish habitat, and not cut or remove trees or natural vegetation without a permit;
carry out everything they bring in, and leave the site the way they found it.

The access rule catches people more often than you'd expect. A tent pitched at the end of a woods road, a trailer parked across a turnaround or a canoe camp that blocks the only landing on a lake all restrict other users. Choose a site off to the side, and leave room for a wood truck to get by. The province's hunting and trapping summary spells out a related rule: on Crown land it's illegal to barricade a forest road on Crown land or to leave a vehicle or equipment where it blocks another vehicle.

RVs and trailers: 75 metres from the water

Most of the province's specific camping rules are about recreational vehicles. The definition is broad: travel trailers, truck campers, hard-top trailers, homemade trailers and other trailers all count.

Setback: an RV can't be set up within 75 metres of the shoreline of a waterway. Tents are exempt.
Location: RVs may only be set up in remote areas where there are no licensed campgrounds.
Wastewater: RVs must have proper holding systems for sewage and grey water. Discharging wastewater on Crown land or into a waterway is illegal.

The 75-metre rule rules out most of the obvious lakeshore pull-offs for trailers, so plan on a site set back in the trees and a walk to the water. The remote-areas rule means Crown land isn't an alternative to a campground along the Fundy coast or the Acadian shore, where licensed campgrounds are everywhere. Further inland, in the Restigouche uplands or around the upper Miramichi, it's a different story.

If you don't comply, the department can order you to remove your RV or tent. Ignoring that order can lead to court action and limits on your future use of Crown land.

Closed and posted areas

The department can prohibit camping in specific areas for environmental, health or safety reasons, and says those areas will be clearly posted. Watch for signs at the start of woods roads and at landings. Beyond posted closures, two broader situations come up.

Woods closures in fire season

In an extreme fire season the province can restrict access to Crown land entirely. On August 10, 2025, with wildfires burning and the woods tinder-dry, it barred hiking, camping, fishing and vehicle use in the woods on Crown land across the province. Most of those restrictions weren't lifted until 12:01 a.m. on August 26, and the provincial burn ban stayed in place after that. If you're planning a late-summer trip, check the province's news releases and Fire Watch page the day before you leave, not just the burn conditions.

Agricultural land, shores and marshes

Under the Trespass Act, entering agricultural land without the written consent of the owner or occupant is prohibited, and that applies to Crown land too. Crown agricultural leases, including wild blueberry leases, are agricultural land, whether or not they're posted. The same act makes it unlawful to drive a motor vehicle in a watercourse, on a lake or ocean shore, in a marsh, or on forest land posted against vehicle trespass.

Campfires: burn days and the 8 p.m. rule

Fire is where New Brunswick's rules are most specific, and they change daily. The Forest Fires Act sets a fire season from the third Monday in April to October 31, which the province can extend. During that season, any open fire within 100 metres of forest land has to fit one of the act's categories or exemptions. A campfire is a Category 1 fire: no written permit is needed, but it must follow the daily burn conditions.

Burn condition	What it means for a campfire on Crown land
Burn permitted	Allowed, but you must stay with the fire until it's completely out.
Restricted burn	Allowed only between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.
No burn	Not allowed at any time.

A burn "day" runs from 2 p.m. to 2 p.m. The province updates the conditions on its Fire Watch map at 2 p.m. every day during the season, and on the burning information line at 1-866-458-8080. A campfire lit on Friday evening falls under Friday afternoon's condition. Saturday's condition starts at 2 p.m. Saturday. Check again each afternoon if you're out for more than a night.

Stoves are treated differently. Liquid- or gas-fuelled stoves that you can shut off with a valve or a lid are exempt from the categories, which is why a camp stove is often allowed when a campfire isn't. Charcoal briquette stoves are exempt too if they sit at least a metre from anything flammable, burn commercial charcoal, and you put the ashes completely out before leaving. Read any ban notice closely, because a full provincial ban can cover more than open fires.

Two legal points are worth knowing. The person who lights a fire is responsible for it, and if it escapes you can be billed for the cost of fighting it and for damage to other people's property. And a fire must never be left unattended until it's completely extinguished. Report a wildfire by calling 911.

Waterfronts and the Crown waterfront reserve

Many lakes and rivers in New Brunswick have a strip of Crown land along the shore even where the land behind it is private. These Crown waterfront reserves run from 20.1 to 60.4 metres deep. They're why you'll often see a thin yellow band along a river on our map with private land behind it. The reserve is public, but reaching it may mean crossing private land, so access is the question to answer first. Remember too that an RV can't go within 75 metres of the shore, which puts a trailer outside most reserves.

Along the coast, the ordinary high-water mark is the boundary between waterfront property and Crown land. The beach below it is public, but the upland behind it usually isn't.

Camp lots, leases and licences of occupation

If what you really want is a place of your own in the woods, New Brunswick has a formal route. Camp lots are leased parcels of Crown land for recreational use, held by up to four individuals, and can't be used as a principal residence. The province offers them periodically, and existing camps sit on them across the province. Other Crown land leases, licences of occupation and easements cover uses such as docks, access roads and commercial operations. All of them run through the Crown Lands Branch. Building on Crown land without one of them isn't camping, and the department can order it removed.

Places that are not ordinary Crown land

Several designations on our map follow their own rules, and the general Crown land camping rules aren't your authority there.

Provincial parks (purple): camp in the park campground. Sites are booked through NB Parks, first-come stays booked at the park are capped at seven nights, and quiet hours run from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Class II Protected Natural Areas (green): the regulation allows camping with a tent and campfires, and the province describes this as authorized campsites and short-term backcountry camping. Motor vehicles are only allowed on roads where they're permitted.
Class I Protected Natural Areas: six small sites, closed to the public except under a ministerial permit for research or education.
National parks: Fundy and Kouchibouguac are federal land with Parks Canada campgrounds, backcountry permits and fees.
Wildlife refuges, wildlife management areas and national wildlife areas: mainly hunting rules, but national wildlife areas also restrict vehicles, fires and camping.
First Nations reserves and other federal land aren't provincial Crown land, and the provincial camping rules don't apply there.
Freehold forest: company-owned forest land is private. Many companies allow public use of their land and roads on their own conditions; check the posted signs and the company's access policy before camping there.

Our guide to parks and protected areas covers each of these in more detail.

ATVs, side-by-sides and snowmobiles

Many people reach their Crown land camp on an ATV. Off-road vehicles in New Brunswick must be registered through Service New Brunswick, display a plate at the rear, and carry liability insurance with first-party accident benefits and at least $200,000 in third-party liability. A trail pass is required to ride on trails managed by the designated trail managers, QuadNB (formerly the New Brunswick All-Terrain Vehicle Federation) for ATVs and the snowmobile federation for sleds. The province's hunting summary also asks riders to stick to managed trails or to roads that don't carry heavy traffic, and to avoid roads in active industrial use.

A short checklist

Confirm it's Crown land: find the spot inside a yellow parcel on the map, and look for leases or posted land on the ground. The how to find Crown land guide explains the checks.
Read the signs at the road entrance for closures, posted land and active harvesting.
Check the burn condition after 2 p.m. on Fire Watch or at 1-866-458-8080, and during a dry spell check for woods closures too.
Trailer? Stay 75 metres from the water, use your holding tanks, and pick a remote spot, not a coastal pull-off near a campground.
Keep it short, keep roads and landings clear, and pack out everything.
Plan for no signal: download an offline map. Our geo-referenced PDF guide explains how.

Looking for something more organised? Browse our New Brunswick campground listings by scenic drive, or see what's within reach of your town on the Crown land by city and region pages. If you're bringing a rod or a rifle, read the fishing and hunting guides too.

Sources

Last reviewed: October 2026. Regulations change; always confirm with the official source before you go.

Camping on Crown land in New Brunswick: short stays, RV setbacks and burn days