Stage 2 does not tell you whether you can run a generator. The exemption list inside the specific order does, and two BLM Stage 2 orders that took effect at the same hour this month answer the question differently. Both started at 12:01 a.m. on August 7, 2026. Both pages checked August 9, 2026.
Northern Idaho says yes, with conditions
The BLM’s August 6 announcement put Bonner and Boundary counties under Stage 2 and Kootenai, Shoshone and Benewah counties under Stage 1, across lands managed by the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, the BLM, the Idaho Department of Lands and the Coeur d’Alene Tribe. Stage 2 there prohibits “building, maintaining, attending, or using a fire, campfire, or stove fire.”
Then the exemptions. One of them reads: “Persons using a generator with an approved spark arrester on areas that are cleared of all flammable materials within three feet of the generator.”
So the generator is allowed if the arrester is approved and you clear a three foot circle around it. Propane gets its own line: devices “fueled solely by liquid petroleum or LPG fuels,” including propane campfires, “may be used only in an area cleared of flammable material.”
That order also has a timed block. From 1:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. it prohibits a listed set of acts, including chainsaw and internal combustion equipment operation for timber work, blasting, welding and grinding that generates flame, and explosives. Camp generators sit in the exemption list, not in that window.
Missoula County does not say
The BLM’s August 5 announcement for all BLM lands in Missoula County uses the same stage number and different words. Campfires and open flames are prohibited. Then: “Additional limits apply between 1 p.m. and 1 a.m., when operating internal combustion engines, welding with an open flame, and using explosives are not allowed.”
A generator is an internal combustion engine. That announcement page does not mention generators, does not mention spark arresters, and lists no exemption for either. We cannot tell you from it whether a camp generator falls inside the afternoon block, and we are not going to guess. The signed order behind the announcement would say. So would the field office.
The test is the arrester, not the stage
BLM Colorado’s Northwest District page prohibits operating “any internal combustion engine without a spark arresting device” at Stage 1 and tightens the standard at Stage 2, where a chainsaw also needs “a chemical pressurized fire extinguisher and a round-point shovel.” Both stages there exempt “devices using pressurized liquid or gas.”
Three orders, three different sentences. Stage 2 is a label a district applies locally, not a rulebook.
What to do
Find the order for the exact unit you are parked on, not the state overview, and read the exemption list all the way down. If it exempts generators with an approved spark arrester, confirm yours has one and that it works. If the order is silent, call the field office before you pull the cord. Under the Missoula County order, violations carry “fines up to $100,000, imprisonment for up to 12 months, or both,” plus liability for the full cost of suppression.
If the answer is no, carry the load on batteries and size the bank with our solar calculator.
The posted order at the site and the field office’s current guidance beat any website, including this one. Live restriction pages by state are linked from our fire restrictions guide, and the ground rules that do not move with fire season are on the Idaho free camping page.