Paige Fischer was driving to the picturesque Traverse City region along Lake Michigan for a family vacation. But even as she was leaving her home in Ann Arbor this week, the smoke from massive wildfires in Canada's northern boreal forests was already evident.

Fischer, who as a professor of environmental sustainability at the University of Michigan, understands better than most what she and her family were getting themselves into.

"Even though I study this, I haven't completely caught up in terms of planning ahead to make sure there's good filtration systems where I'm staying," she acknowledged. "But I definitely have masks with me."

As of Thursday, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center said 201 fires are burning right now in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba an

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