Canadian Wildfire Smoke Stokes Political Dispute

The winds over Wisconsin are shifting Monday, dispersing smoke from Canadian wildfires that blanketed much of state this weekend.

Southerly winds are pushing smoke back to the north. That’s improved air quality in most of the state, now listed as having “moderate” or “good” air quality by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

But an unhealthy air quality alert is still in effect through 6 p.m. Monday evening in eight northern counties: Ashland, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Iron, Sawyer, Vilas and Washburn.

There’s a chance smoke could return later this week, according to Jason Alumbaugh, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Green Bay. He said that depends on whether winds will shift again Wednesday or Thursday, bringing Canadian air south to Wisconsin.

“If that comes to fruition, and there’s still some smoke up there, the winds shifting back to the north or northeast could draw some of that back over our area,” he said.

“Tough to tell right now what kinds of concentrations we’d see from that,” he said.

Wildfires in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario were the likely source of this weekend’s smoke, he said.

He said this weekend’s conditions were comparable to a period in early June that saw Wisconsin have some of the worst air quality in the nation.

Wisconsin lawmakers write letter to Canada about wildfires

Meanwhile, two Wisconsin lawmakers want answers from the Canadian government.

Republican U.S. Reps. Tom Tiffany and Glenn Grothman co-signed a letter sent last week “on behalf of our constituents who have had to deal with suffocating Canadian wildfire smoke filling the air to begin the summer.”

Along with four House Republicans from Minnesota, Tiffany and Grothman asked Canada’s ambassador to the United States what her government is doing to mitigate smoke from wildfires.

“In our neck of the woods, summer months are the best time of the year to spend time outdoors recreating, enjoying time with family, and creating new memories, but this wildfire smoke makes it difficult to do all those things,” the letter says.

The letter claims that arson and “a lack of active forest management” in Canada contributes to the fires.

“With all the technology that we have at our disposal, both in preventing and fighting wildfires, this worrisome trend can be reversed if proper action is taken,” it said.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew was asked about the lawmakers’ letter last week.

“I’ve shaken the hands of American firefighters in northern Manitoba who are helping us out, and I would challenge these ambulance-chasers in the U.S. Congress to go and do the same,” he said.

“This is what turns people off from politics, is when you’ve got a group of congresspeople trying to trivialize and make hay out of a wildfire season where we’ve lost lives in our province,” he said.

Wildfires have recently forced several Canadian communities to evacuate. Toronto woke up to one of the worst air qualities in the world Monday.

Skies clearer across Wisconsin, but haze could return later this week was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.