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To the Journal editor:
U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet, writes that he has lost patience with Canada for allowing wildfire smoke to cross the border. Perhaps it is time he attended the Marquette Farmers Market on Saturdays to talk to his constituents about what all we are losing patience with.
Those of us who actually live in northern Michigan have an affinity for our Canadian neighbors. I've traveled there, had a family member educated at a university there and have a Canadian in the family. Trust me, Rep. Bergman, they are not burning down their forests to aggravate you.
The four Michigan congressional members (including Reps. James, Moolenaar and McClain) state in their published letter of July 15, to Canada's Minister Carney, "If Canada will not manage its forests to prevent these fires, the United States will look elsewhere, and act on our own, to protect our people. That means our own agencies exploring direct involvement in cross-border fuel reduction and firefighting capacity."
Are these representatives really claiming that “US agencies” would illegally cross the border of a sovereign nation and take over their forests? This amounts to invasion of another country. Canada's remote boreal forests have been stressed by intense storms and shortened winters with less snowpack. At the same time, wildfires in the western U.S. are getting more frequent and deadlier with fire seasons getting longer and increasing in severity.
With thousands of lightning strikes across Canada recently, with a landscape that has become a tinderbox, it is not surprising that these fires are raging. There is no magically quick fix for this. Here in the U.S., the Trump administration has gutted our forest service, slashed personnel and budgets, and ordered the closure of 57 of the 77 national research labs.
There goes our country's ability to keep our own forests healthy, productive and less prone to forest fire devastation. Canadians have been rescuing our citizens in the Boundary Waters/Quetico during these recent fires, including to extract YMCA youth paddlers from Minnesota.
Canadian firefighters have fought alongside our crews in California and last week a Canadian firefighting pilot crashed and died while helping in containment efforts of a Colorado wildfire. Do we not care? Our Canadian neighbors deserve all the assistance we can give in this time of need.
For me, I'll start with a donation to the Canadian Red Cross.