Charles van Heck's Woodhull Journal

This morning, I received a letter from a friend in Canada. He was polite, as he typically is, but I could hear the anger when he asked, “These are Congressmen?”

His question was raised in response to a letter six members of the U.S. House of Representatives addressed to Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Kirsten Hillman. Here is a copy of the letter.

July 7, 2025  

The Honorable Kirsten Hillman

Ambassador of Canada The Embassy of Canada

501 Pennsylvania Ave N.W.

Washington, DC 20001

Dear Ambassador Hillman,

We write to you today on behalf of our constituents who have had to deal with suffocating Canadian wildfire smoke filling the air to begin the summer. As we are entering the height of the fire season, we would like to know how your government plans on mitigating wildfire and the smoke that makes its way south.  

As I’m sure you know, this is not the first year Canadian wildfire smoke has been an issue. In 2023, Canada had its worst year for wildfires on record, last year’s fire season was considered one of the worst, and this year seems to be a continuation of these previous years. While we know a key driver of this issue has been a lack of active forest management, we’ve also seen things like arson as another way multiple large wildfires have ignited in Canada. 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.  

Our constituents have been limited in their ability to go outside and safely breathe due to the dangerous air quality the wildfire smoke has created. 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.  

Canada has been a friendly neighbor of the United States and the states we represent, so given the significance of this issue we urge you to relay this message to your government, in particular Natural Resources Canada and the Canadian Forest Service.  

Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to your response.  

The letter was signed by Republican House representatives Tom Tiffany and Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin; and Brad Finstad, Michelle Fischbach, Pete Stauber and Tom Emmer of Minnesota.

The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reports there are currently 526 active fires burning in Canada. Of these, the province of Manitoba is responding to 105 active fires burning as of Thursday evening, 10 July. The information I have been able to obtain indicates that the wildfires in Manitoba have consumed over one million hectares as of Tuesday, 8 July. Some of the wildfires currently raging in Canada began in 2023 and are ongoing. There is no indication that widespread arson is behind the current wildfires.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes. Thousands more are under mandatory evacuation orders.

Fire crews from other provinces have arrived to assist in the effort to control and extinguish the fires. Resources from out of province have arrived in Manitoba to help, including 100 firefighters from Mexico, a seven-person incident management team from New Zealand and 25 personnel from Minnesota.

I have previously written about the Canadians who came to the States to assist us in our times of natural disasters. Let us never forget how often Canadians have stood with us in our times of need.  Personally, I believe we could be making a greater effort to assist our neighbors now. The signatories of this letter show themselves to be ignorant of the active precautions the federal and provincial governments take in forest management. They show themselves ignorant of the impact climate change has in creating hazardous conditions from Texas and New Mexico to Canada.

“I’ve shaken the hands of American firefighters in northern Manitoba who are helping us out,” said Premier Wab Kinew. “I would challenge these ambulance chasers in the U.S. Congress to go and do the same, and to hear how much the American firefighting heroes who are here — how much they love our province.”

https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/wildfires-tracker-canada

Images:

Smoke rises from the Summit Lake wildfire, west of Fort Nelson, B.C., on June 9. (BC Wildfire via Reuters)

Dwayne Chornoby, who lives near Garden Hill, took this photo of the nearby wildfire on Wednesday evening. (Submitted by Dwayne Chornoby)

All photographs appeared on the CBC News website.