When forests become the “big polluters”

We associate air pollution with big cities, but millions of people are feeling the impacts of pollution from wildfires burning from California to Alaska and as far east as Colorado.

It is one of the worst years on record for forest fires and we will spend billions to fight the fires and protect people, homes and businesses.

Mammoth forest fires have been around for centuries. In a single week in September 1902, the Yacolt Burn engulfed more than a half million acres and killed 56 people in the Columbia River Gorge and around Mt. St. Helens. The choking smoke was so thick that ships on the Colu...