Fishing trips to Canada are a tradition for Jeffrey Hardy and his three friends from Vermont. They have, since 2001, been anglers loyal to Quebec’s northern wilderness, where the walleye are plentiful and the cellphone service is not. This summer, the crisp forest air coveted by recreationists visiting Canada was instead polluted with smoke as wildfires have torn through millions of acres, blocking roads, destroying campgrounds and forcing tourism operators to scramble during peak season. “Everybody was excited to go because Canada had been shut down for all of Covid.”The country’s worst wildfire season on record is straining the outdoor segments of Canada’s tourism industry at a crucial time in its rebound from years of pandemic travel restrictions. Of the 28.6 million acres that have burned across the country so far, more than 11.6 million acres were in Quebec, the most of any province, according to data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

---

Persons: Jeffrey Hardy, ”, Hardy Organizations: recreationists, Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Locations: Canada, Vermont, St, Albans, Vt, Bermuda, Quebec