(Bismarck) On Saturday, smoke from Canadian forest fires crossed the border to cover a large part of the American midwest. Most of the Minnesota and certain parts of Montana, Northern Dakota and Wisconsin were classified as having poor air quality on a map of the American environmental protection agency.
Part of the Northern Dakota, where Theodore-Roosevelt and other tourist attractions were located, was classified as “very bad”, displaying one of the worst air of the country.
“(At minnesota), if you have a beautiful pork lanyard that you can hang on to a tree, it will turn into ham,” joked Al Chirpich, owner of the Hideaway Resort near Detroit Lakes
Screenshot from the agency’s website for environmental protection
This card shows the poor air quality (in orange and red) in the northern states of the Midwest Amrican, as well as the Canadian plains.
In normal times, people would enjoy the lake, but, on Saturday, he saw no boat on the water, where smoke reduced visibility and limited his campsite. None of his 18 Autocaravane locations was occupied. Its seven rental chalets attracted only a handful of customers.
“I think when time is improving, we will be overwhelmed again. On July 4, I probably had around twenty boats moored to my quays, and today my boat is the only one, ”said Mr. Chirpich.
The poor air quality should last the whole weekend in the region, according to Jennifer Ritterling, meteorologist of the national weather service.
Limiting the time spent outside, keeping the windows closed and using air purifiers are good ideas for people with lung disease, such as asthma and chronic obstructive bronchopneumopathy, and even for healthy people, said Mme Ritterling.
“Our summers here are quite short, so everyone wants to get out of it, and it’s a bit frustrating when there is this smoke in the air,” she added. The entire Manitoba is in a state of emergency due to forest fires, which forced 12,600 people to evacuate their homes. In Manitoba, fires have burned over more than 10,000 square kilometers, the largest fire area in 30 years of electronic registry. Less than 1000 people have evacuated their home in Saskatchewan, where the flames continue their devastation.
Photo of the American National Parks Service, provided by Associated Press
Forest fire smoke in the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park in Colorado, Thursday, July 10, 2025
In Arizona, the northern limit of the Grand Canyon National Park is still closed due to a 6 square kilometers of forest fire and another fire nearby, on a land of the Bureau of Land Management, which burned almost 44 square kilometers.
In Colorado, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park remains closed due to an 11 square kilometers fire fire that rages on the southern shore of the park, known for its steep and spectacular cliffs. The teams fight against the fire on several fronts to prevent it from spreading. The fires in and around the two national parks led to the evacuation of hundreds of people.
Mr. Chirpich, owner of a Minnesota hotel complex, said that he was planning to go to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park on Thursday and that he was “a little worried about how this would happen there”.
“I’m going to leave a smoker for another, I suppose,” he joked.
