Recurring wildfire smoke raises questions about Canadian forest management.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
Just like heat domes, smoke from Canadian wildfires appears to be a regular feature of American summers.
For the past several years, we have covered the smoke emanating from blazes in Canada’s mismanaged forests. Furthermore, a number of the fires were investigated for potential arson.
Now, over 800 wildfires are being reported across Canada, with smoke affecting air quality in New York.
More than 830 wildfires were burning in Canada on Wednesday, along with more than a dozen in northern Minnesota, forcing mandatory evacuations and spreading unhealthy smoke down to the Lower 48.
Some of the largest wildfires are burning in west-central Ontario, consuming thick forests and releasing an incredible amount of smoke.
The wind is now directing that smoke into the U.S., creating dangerous air quality for millions across the upper Midwest and Northeast on Wednesday and through the end of the week.
On Wednesday afternoon, air quality had reached unhealthy levels in New York City and the Eastern Lake Ontario region, the Central New York region and parts of Western New York, according to air monitoring site AirNow.
There are currently 838 wildfires burning across Canada. More than 100 are in northwestern Ontario, sending thick smoke to the Great Lakes and Northeast U.S. pic.twitter.com/nJS5QaJvqY
— Collin Gross (@CollinGrossWx) July 15, 2026
I’ve so had it with Canada. Every time our air quality goes above 75 we should addd 5% to the Trump tariff. https://t.co/Ct6b7iC22A
— Inez Stepman (@InezFeltscher) July 15, 2026
Air quality in the Midwest is also being adversely impacted, and two of the fires have crossed over into U.S. territory.
Two of the largest blazes — the Bear Trap and Thumb fires — have crossed the border into Canada, officials said.
“Fire management anticipate another very high fire danger day today with increased fire activity and fire growth,” the agency said.
Already this week, state authorities around the Great Lakes have issued alerts for poor air quality. In northeastern Minnesota, the state’s pollution control agency said that the air quality would likely remain “very unhealthy for everyone” through Thursday. Just across the border in southern Ontario, Environment Canada issued an orange-level alert on Tuesday for air quality and urged people to avoid spending time outside.
Smell smoke this morning? Its coming from a wildfire outbreak in Ontario. While it should not impact air quality much today, smoke at the surface could increase Wednesday into Thursday, potentially reducing visibilities and air quality. High temperatures may also be limited. pic.twitter.com/6QdV5965nt
— NWS New York NY (@NWSNewYorkNY) July 14, 2026
Meanwhile, in Canada, a wild video is making rounds showing a freight train surrounded by huge flames from the roaring Canadian wildfires near Armstrong, Ontario.
The video, which was taken inside the train, shows raging flames around it. A crew member can be seen also capturing the incident on their cellphone.
The train car was stopped in Armstrong, Ont., which is north of Thunder Bay. A CN Rail spokesperson told Global News all employees in the area were evacuated overnight Monday.
“CN has temporarily suspended rail operations near Armstrong, ON as a precaution due to wildfire activity in the area. As a safety measure, CN employees in the area and residents of the Town of Armstrong were evacuated overnight,” the spokesperson said in an email.
ON FIRE: Wild video shows a freight train surrounded by huge flames from the roaring Canadian wildfires near Armstrong, Ontario. According to local sources, three Canadian National Railway Company (CN Rail) trains were halted on their tracks because of the fires in the area. pic.twitter.com/8DluFdM1Gp
— FOX Weather (@foxweather) July 15, 2026
However, there may be an upside to the smoke. As meteorologist Chris Martz notes, the smoke layer may take the edge off the heat.
The Canadians need to get their wildfire situation under control.
This is now the third year in a row that we are having to deal with these smoke plumes being blown downwind, reducing air quality in the northeast.
The one good thing is that it should help keep a lid on temperatures the next two days as forecast highs range 95–100°F on model guidance. But with the smoke layer, shortwave flux will be reduced, so highs will be in the low-mid-90s.
The Canadians need to get their wildfire situation under control.
This is now the third year in a row that we are having to deal with these smoke plumes being blown downwind, reducing air quality in the northeast.
The one good thing is that it should help keep a lid on… pic.twitter.com/ZqA4ckDPmN
— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) July 15, 2026
Back in 1992, a review examined how prescribed burns have been a natural and effective forest management tool in Canada and argued for their expanded, science‑based use to reduce fuel loads, support healthy forests, and maintain ecosystem function.
Published in The Forestry Chronicle, the authors show that prescribed burning can be cost‑effective and ecologically compatible with many management objectives. The authors concluded that continued and adaptive use of prescribed fire, integrated with responsible timber harvesting and clearcut‑area treatments, is essential for long‑term forest resilience and should remain a core tool in Canadian forest policy and operations.
Perhaps Canada should revisit this 1992 paper, which shows controlled burns and sound forest management practices are effective in preventing massive wildfires. https://t.co/cSqFailjPt pic.twitter.com/PTpEYeCGd2
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) July 15, 2026
There are many things that seemed to have worked better in 1992, especially in Canada. Perhaps it is time to return to more traditional approaches rather than bitterly clinging to eco-activism and climate cultism.
Here is a photo and article from “Michigan Farm News” about how bad the smoke is from the Canadian fires.
https://www.michiganfarmnews.com/worst-in-the-world-wildfire-smoke-tanks-mi-air-quality-gop-lawmakers-blast-canada-s-inaction?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Farm%20News
I drove today from Chicagoland to just north of Milwaukee on ‘personal business’ and back. At times both ways the visibility was under 1 mile because of the Ontario wildfire smoke. All the overhead Wisconsin electronic road signs carried visibility warnings and required headlights be on. I have been a relatively frequent summer visitor to my second home on a golf course in Chicagoland for over now 26 years (to escape Fort Lauderdale summers)—cannot remember it ever being smokey like today.
Before Americans jump strictly on Canada over the issue, they should remember that these fires are also out of control in northeastern Minnesota where there is better access to areas that are burning. Meanwhile on the Canadian side many of the blazes are in sparsely populated regions with little or no road access. So getting at these areas to practice forest management or to battle the flames is not so easy, or maybe impossible, and Canadians are being affected by the smoke just as much as Americans.
I would go farther. Canadian boreal forests need periodic (usually summer lightning caused) fires (varying in range and intensity depending on weather) to rejuvenate. Their soils are very poor; fire ash returns nutrients for rejuvenation. For both plants and animals, Canadian boreal forests need ‘pyrodiversity’ to thrive long term.
Greta can SEE that Ontario wildfires smoke from Palestine.
(or maybe it’s a Hamas rocket pod she’s standing next to?)
How dare you?
It’s Israels Thermobaric and Phosphorbombs Trump is standing next to whenever Adelson and Lauder tell him to deliver
and the 200000 killed in Israels concentration camp right now
that should ease your pain, bro.
(I mean, if Iran killed 40k people in a few days according to Trump, how many has Israel killed(in self defense of course) by flattening one of the mostly populatied ares in a few years if they already killed more than 200 journalists? )
But as member of a massmurdering nation that is at war with the rest of the nations of the world that killed tens of millions since end of world war 2
and a hundred years of Nakba
It’s a bit strange that a few tiny hamas rockets can offend you so much –
especially as US President Bibi was caught times and times again sponsoring Hamas (Haaretz has many articles about that)
whenever he was not busy trying to sterelize his own black population… I mean … by USS liberty/Lavon Affair – mistake injecting black Israel women with “longlasting contraceptives”.
(I’m just kidding – this never happened.Otherwise it would have been all over the media.
Outcries,protests,sanctions,US- bombing.Wouldn’t it?)
But I feel you Bro.
The few days of “peace” with Iran hit you real hard.
but a few nuclear bomb drops on Iran will ease your pain,because MAGA –
Maka Ashke…Americas Genocide Awesome.
See you at the next war.
No matter who the state leader and the country will be, Bro.
They are pure evil ; the population absolutely wants to be liberated by a bunch of genocidal maniacs, get their economy and ressources highjacked by Blackrock and an isis-terrorist like Al Julani as President.
Till then, stay strong and never forget,mu dear woke conservative friend:
47 years,
You absolutely want a ballroom
and short-term Pain for long-term gain
and every lie out of the mouth of your epsteined Messiah is a blessing from god.
Ask not what your country can do for you,
Ask what your country can do for Israel.
I’m sure your comment makes sense to you.
Me – I’m backing away slowly, being careful not to make eye contact. 😣
It might help if you’d learn to write in complete sentences rather than this gibberish.
Not to worry Canada has a top flight Net Zero program.
Fun aside. The fine particulate wildfire smoke I experienced today is ACTUAL carbon pollution. The associated wildfire CO2 is not.
Wildfire smoke has many components; the dangerous particles sized PM2.5 indeed consist of many things – only some of them are complex carbon compounds and include soot, dust and ash. Only the soot is actually carbon and is not the main component.
PM2,5 is Bull5hit. The whole study was flawed. The EPA trying to find anything to make diesels more expensive to run than gas vehicles and consequently push to EV’s.
PM2.5 is a diameter. Diameters are toxic, apparently.
The supposed PM2.5 exhaust particle size is why they are making diesels use DEF. Turns out it is not dangerous at all. Just another bullcrap environmental study
Canada has a carbon tax. There are no fires. All of this is fake news.
an Ojibwa Indian once told me they sometimes set fires to get the well paying work of fighting them. This was near Sioux Lookout, Ontario which a huge area where over 800,000 acres are presently burning in the Thunder Bay District.
He even told me how they do it which is light a candle that is set on the forest floor upright inside an open paper bag. The bag keeps the flame from blowing out and when the candle finally burns down it sets the bag on fire to ignite the forest floor which is mostly dry balsam fir needles. The delay lets the arsonist get far away (an alibi) before the fire starts.
He also told me some interesting fire fighting stories. Mind you in a lot of this vast boreal forest there are no roads or people so they often do not fight a fire.
Did a boat trip a few years ago in & out of the fiords on the North West coast of Vancouver Island British Columbia.
Many of the cliffs & peaks were a-blaze.
Helicopters were buzzing about.
The skipper of the boat told us that the aerial firefighters don’t worry about water bombing the uninhabited hills, just let them burn to the tops, where the fires eventually peter out.
Lotsa smoke, but not worth the effort & cost of fuel to put the fires out.
Made sense to me.
It is usually not possible to put a fire out unless it is very small. Fire fighting efforts just try to limit the spread.
A tin can tipped to allow air does a similar job.
Then they should consider a big road building project. A well managed forest will more than cover its costs including road building.
Even where there is adequate road access, it’s no guarantee of preventing wildfire damage. Weren’t hundreds of homes and structures destroyed in California in recent years when the opportunities to control wild fires wasn’t hindered by poor accessibility? The problem there and in other populated areas is lax zoning laws which fail to prohibit homes from being built too close to treed areas. But if there’s not only a lack of roads plus a lack of population, who’s supposed to manage the forests and how?
I live in NE Wisconsin, near Green Bay, and have a cabin in far north WI. At home the smoke was so bad today that visibility was less than 1/4 mile at ground level. Our neighbors at the cabin are reporting heavier smoke and ash falling from the sky. The fires are on the northwest side of Lake Superior, so that ash is traveling about 175 miles across the lake and across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Local swimming pools are closed because the cities do not want the lifeguards to breathe the smoke for 6-8 hours.
Just a few random questions.
What is the main cause of the fires that are occurring across Canada, Europe and here in the U.K.?
Is poor land management making them worse?
The lack of facilities to identify fires early?
https://www-cbsnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/fires-destroy-forests/?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17371167291874&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbsnews.com%2Famp%2Fnews%2Ffires-destroy-forests%2F%23amp_tf%3DFrom%2520%25251%2524s%26aoh%3D17371167291874%26referrer%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%26ampshare%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.cbsnews.com%252Fnews%252Ffires-destroy-forests%252F
The main cause of fires is lightning and human firebugs. Last year there were 46 fires burning in BC and 45 of them were deliberate.
Link please.
In a natural forest fires start naturally (lightning) and end naturally. Smokey the Bear put an end to that.
https://www.keranews.org/2012-08-23/our-changing-forests-an-88-year-time-lapse
Old – 1950 – is new again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinchaga_fire
See the section about “Great Smoke Pall”
{I remember it, being in western Pennsylvania at the time.}
Having visited the sorts of areas where these fires burn, it
may be a cliché, but there is no there there.
The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world’s largest land biome. In North America, it covers most of inland Canada, Alaska, and parts of the northern contiguous United States. In Eurasia, it covers most of Sweden, Finland, much of Russia from Karelia in the west to the Pacific Ocean (including much of Siberia), much of Norway, some lowland/coastal areas of Iceland, and areas of northern Kazakhstan, northern Mongolia, and northern Japan (on the island of Hokkaido).
Much of this environment contains human habitation and that for a very long time.
It has been managed elsewhere quite well, and well managed by the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the North American continent.
The fairy tale from the Greens that much of the planet is pristine, untouched, nature as it was before humanity arrived is just such an error and so damaging.
So much for the superiority of the European colonial invaders and occupiers.
We cannot turn back history, but we can re-apply the tried and proven forest management practices.
Some of it will end up in the Stratosphere and we will deal with it next spring as well.
Just going to say Smoke coverage in Philadelphia has lower actual hi temps 3 to 4 f below predicted hi temps. Makes you really think how much did industrial smog and rampant Forrest fire suppress the historical temperature records vs what we see today. It could easily be 1 1/2 degrees.
Many Canadians would rather burn the forest than harvest it. I see this all the time. It is a religion.
Most tree species do not live forever. Forests become over mature and decadent.
I am in a class 9 wildfire hazard zone. People are fighting to stop harvesting.
The Track and Field National Masters Championships are being held in Geneva, Ohio, for the second day the event has been cancelled. Several of my training partners are there for the competition.
Special Weather Statement.
2026 USATF Masters Outdoor Championships
7/17/26
Due to dangerous air quality, competition at the USATF Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships is suspended today, July 17. While we understand this is disappointing news, this decision was made to prioritize the health and safety of participants, officials, staff, and volunteers.
Why aren’t any of those groups that sue “Big Oil” suing Canada for poor forest management?
A short time ago there were terrible fires around LA. What did Canada send? We sent fire jumpers with parachutes, fire fighters, water bombers that flew low and filled up with scoops – huge aircraft expertly flown over the burning hills, impressing the heck out of the natives who had never seen such a thing before. That’s what a good neighbour does.
What did the US send Canada when there were hundreds of fires burning in NW Ontario? Tariffs. No kidding, tariffs. I am not making this up. That’s the plan.
Canada has about 1.5 times as much tree cover (in area) than the continental US and 1/9th of the population. Most of it is inaccessible by land routes. As no one is coming to help, there are going to be some smoky years.
At the moment in the US there are 391 fires burning, adding to the 40,000 experienced so far this year. It has been a bad year for forest fires everywhere it seems. Every one that is quickly extinguished adds to the probability that a worse fire will occur next year.
We are witnessing a couple of examples of blaming the victim on climate change.
1 Blaming Europeans for their lack of air conditioning, when the USA is the nation that has put the greatest amount of carbon dioxide into the sky.
2 Blaming Canada for not controlling their wildfires, when we don’t control our own wildfires here, and when, again, the USA has put more CO2 into the sky than any other nation.
We have mirrors. Try using one every so often.