In Wyoming's Wind Rivers, wood fires (including stoves) are banned above 10,500 feet and discouraged above 10,000 feet. If you go to a popular place like Island Lake (within the ban area, by the way) you won't find a single stick of dead wood anywhere! The thin soils in timberline areas need all the decaying vegetable matter they can get to preserve/replenish the soils they have.

In the Pacific Northwest (where timberline is lower) the fire ban is generally at 5,000 feet and above. However, our summers are so dry that by August there is usually a complete ban on all fires, often even in the fireplaces in front-country campgrounds. And that definitely includes wood stoves. In some areas, the only stoves allowed are in the dry season are those which have a shut-off valve, which also excludes alcohol stoves.

Patrick, if you will read about some of the devastating forest fires we get in the west, you'll realize one of the reasons we westerners are so anti-fire.