U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber has joined lawmakers from Wisconsin and Minnesota in appealing to the Canadian government to take action to “mitigate wildfire and the smoke that makes its way south.”
In a letter penned Monday to Canadian Ambassador Kirsten Hillman, Stauber said he was writing on behalf of constituents who “have been limited in their ability to go outside and safely breathe due to the dangerous air quality the wildfire smoke has created.”
Stauber joined Minnesota U.S. Reps. Brad Finstad, Michelle Fischbach and Tom Emmer and Wisconsin U.S. Reps. Tom Tiffany and Glenn Grothman in the correspondence.
“In our neck of the woods, summer months are the best time of year to spend time outdoors recreating, enjoying time with family and creating new memories, but this wildfire smoke makes it difficult to do all these things,” they wrote.
The latest wildfire smoke is part of a pattern, according to the Congressmen.
They noted that in 2023, Canada had its worst year of wildfires on record , while last year’s was considered one of the worst and 2025 “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,”they wrote. “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.”
The Congressmen asked for Hillman to relay their concerns to the Canadian government, in particular “Natural Resources Canada and the Canadian Forest Service.”
