Education Manager Jenny Sadak shows the outdoor learning space being built at Trees for Tomorrow in Eagle River.
As an environmental education group, they want to get their students outside to learn as much as possible.
“Since I’ve started here, we’ve always talked about having a space on campus where we can hold classes outdoors,” said Sadak. “If it’s raining or snowing, we can still have a roof over our heads.”
Severe windchill in the winter and thunder and lightning in the spring and summer have long been weather conditions that force their classes indoors.
Drops in air quality because of wildfire smoke has been added to that list in recent years.
“Safety is number one,” said Sadak. “Whenever we do our lessons, activities, programming, safety is always at the forefront of our minds.”
There were at least 14 days last summer when the air quality dropped to the “Unhealthy” or “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” level in northern Wisconsin because of wildfire smoke. On days like that, Trees for Tomorrow had to bring kids inside for at least part of the day.
They also saw some cancelations by older adults in their Rhodes Scholar program.
“I remember some staff members leaving early on some of those days when it was really bad just because they didn't feel well,” said Sadak. “They had scratchy throats, headaches, just feeling tired, so it definitely affected us that way too.”
Increasing frequency
Experiencing smoke from Canadian wildfires is not a new experience for the Northwoods. Fires are part of the ecological landscape across much of North America.
But as climate change leads to shorter and drier winters across Canada, drought conditions are expected to worsen which then leads to worse wildfires seasons—of which Canada is already experiencing.
2023 and 2025 are the two worst wildfire seasons on record for the country and subsequently those years are among the worst air quality stretches for Wisconsin.
“I think that last year, particularly, was pretty bad, like one of the worst summers I've seen since working in the outdoor field,” said Sadak who’s been working outdoors for more than 20 years, the last 11 at Trees for Tomorrow. “I grew up in the Northwoods and even as a kid I don't remember super bad air quality, just smoky out every now and then.”
Wisconsin is also seeing the impacts earlier as wildfire seasons start earlier. 2023 was the first year in more than a decade with a spring air quality advisory because of wildfire smoke, according to the Wisconsin State Climatology Office.
Wildfire smoke is bad for your health
Wildfire smoke poses serious, and sometimes deadly, health risks.
“There's growing research showing that some of the chronic exposure to wildfire smoke can really have long-term impacts on your health,” said Sarah Benish, a scientist with the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene.
Those long-term impacts include neurological, circulatory, respiratory, and cardiovascular diseases.
Protect your health from wildfire smoke:
- Know your health risk
- Check air quality monitors
- Limit time outdoors on “unhealthy” days
- Keep windows closed
- Consider buying an air purifier or build your own
- Use N95 masks
A study published earlier this year links chronic exposure to wildfire smoke to an average of 24,100 deaths per year in the lower 48.
“Wildfire smoke can contain a couple different things that includes some gases like carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxides that are all precursors to things like ozone and smog,” said Benish. “It also contains particulate matter or PM. That's usually pretty small and can be breathed into your respiratory tract pretty easily.”
Immediate impacts people might notice when exposed to wildfire smoke include shortness of breath and eye irritation. It can also aggravate underlying conditions like asthma and heart disease.
“I think this is unfortunately one of those things that's only going to happen more and more,” said Benish. “Coming up with some thoughts on how you can reduce your exposure risk are really important in the future.”
A key part of reducing your exposure risk means knowing when you could be exposed.
Are we in for another smoky summer this year?
Unfortunately, there’s no way to really say at this point if we’ll be dealing with another smoky summer in the Northwoods.
The fire risks are lower right now in Canada than in recent years.
“The challenge there is that it does look like some of the southern plains are a little bit dry and that's bad for the potential for fire, but it is a lighter fuel bed and so the impacts would not be the same as some of the fuels that were burning in the past years that affected your area. So that's, I guess, promising for less severe smoke,” said Peter Lahm with emphasis on “less.”
Lahm is the Branch Chief for Smoke within the Washinton Office of the Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management. He’s also the leader of the interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program.
The air quality impacts in the Northwoods the last couple of years have largely been from Canadian wildfires. There is the potential the region could see impacts from closer fires like we’ve seen with northern Minnesota fires and those in the Western U.S., which is looking at a significant risk for wildfires this year.
“We are absolutely concerned about that. With higher fire potential, if it's realized, that obviously means more smoke. Now, a lot of that activity is quite a ways west and not necessarily in a trajectory for your area,” said Lahm. “It could be an influence, but it's highly variable.”
Even if Canada and the Western U.S. does experience another bad fire season, that doesn’t automatically mean the Midwest will see smoke again.
The air currents also need to be flowing into the region from the direction of the fire. And even if it is blowing in this direction, the smoke doesn’t always make it to the surface.
These are just some of the many reasons that air quality impacts from wildfires are hard to forecast more than a day or two out.
Forecasting smoke
When Wisconsin is expected to be impacted, Alex Oser is one of the people working to issue air quality alerts. He’s the air quality meteorologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Where to get air quality alerts:
- WisconsinAQM mobile app: Download in the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.
- View current wildfire and smoke conditions across North America with the AirNow Fire and Smoke map.
- Sign up to receive air quality advisory notices to your email inbox or via text.
- Sign up to receive customizable EnviroFlash air quality notifications.
- View near real-time air quality conditions from the DNR’s statewide air monitoring network.
“What's difficult is trying to predict when, or even if, there are going to be some mechanisms in place to bring that smoke that's aloft down to the surface where it's impacting air quality, the air that we breathe, and is actually showing up and being recorded on the monitors,” said Oser.
Alerts can vary by state. The Wisconsin DNR issues them at the “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” category.
The recent smokier summers have improved how the DNR gets the air quality messaging out. That’s becoming especially important when we’re experiencing multiple days of poor air quality.
Oser referenced one stretch last year where it was more than a week of alerts.
Alerts were issued from noon one day to noon the next day, but then the DNR had to keep re-issuing them. Oser says it led to a “decent amount of confusion.”
“Then other folks were like, ‘why do they keep updating it? Can't they just tell that the smoke is going to stick around?’” said Oser. “We kind of knew that it was going to at least stick around for 48 hours, but it's more difficult when you're getting into like 72 hours and 96 hours. That's where we were running into issues there.”
Be Smoke Ready
Even without knowing what this summer has in store, Lahm says it’s good to prepare now.
“Those who are at risk should be aware of that state. During the summer months a little bit of extra medicine may be useful for someone like with asthma, you know, an extra inhaler in case it does get smoky,” said Lahm. “It's not a bad move. You're now smoke ready, right? You're now prepared. You don't have to go outside and run to the drug store when it is smoky.”
Being prepared can include knowing your and your loved one’s risk, investing in air filters, and knowing how to get air quality information.
Sadak and the folks at Trees for Tomorrow get theirs along with the weather report. They use the air quality index along with EPA recommendations for schools to make decisions about whether to hold programs indoors or outdoors.
“One thing that we are really good at is being flexible and kind of changing up the schedule on the fly because of spring weather or weather in general in Northern Wisconsin,” said Sadak.
While we keep our fingers crossed for a smoke free summer, it doesn’t hurt to prepare now.
