b'LUMBER PRICESUP, THANKS TO THECANADIAN WILDFIRES But that wont last long ifresidential construction turns down.by Peter Buxbaum, AJOTSeptember 2023 | Published in AJOT Issue #757In June and July, Americans from Boston to Chicago began to experience orange skies and to breath foul air, as smoke from Canadian wildfires created uncomfortable, and sometimes hazardous, conditions. At one point, one-third of the U.S. population was under an air quality alert. Thats to say nothing of what the Canadians were going through. The situation only got worse from there. According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center, there were 963 active fires burning at the end of the first week of September, 600 of those characterized as being out of control. That compares to a total of around 400 fires reported in early June, nearly 500 in early July, and around 1,000 in late August. The wildfire season in Canada usually runs through October.Year to date, over 6,100 fires have been reported, which have burned over 40 million acres of landthe largest area ever recorded in a single year, according to a report from Forest Economic Advisors, a Massachusetts-based wood and timber database. Thats a good deal more than usualsince 1990, wildfires across Canada have consumed an average of somewhat over 6 million acres per year.Forest fires are a natural phenomenon in Canada, and the United States for that matter, and some, of course, are also caused by human negligence and recklessness. But this season, Canada got off to an unprecedented start, and the wildfires have proceeded apace. In the U.S. the effects were still being felt in late August, where less-than-optimal atmospheric conditions were seen in Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, and Minneapolis. In the first days of September, heavy smoke was inundating eastern Montana, the Dakotas, and Nebraska. At the end of the first week of September, a column of moderate smoke stretched down the middle of the country all the way to Alabama and Mississippiand the wildfires were still burning. 36'