Fred Clark on Wildfire Smoke, the Woods, and Winning Wisconsin’s 7th District

Wisconsin's air has been dangerous to breathe recently — wildfire smoke from Minnesota and Canada pushed air quality past the records set in 2023. Fred Clark, a career forester and the frontrunner in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District, has been sounding the alarm from a unique vantage point: 35 years spent working in the same forests now filling the sky with smoke.

Fred brings real legislative experience to this race. He served three terms in the Wisconsin State Assembly representing Sauk, Columbia, and Marquette counties, where he chaired the Assembly committee on forestry, parks and outdoor recreation, chaired the tourism committee, and served on the Natural Resources Board. That combination — land management and tourism policy — puts him in a rare position to speak to exactly what's at stake for Northern Wisconsin's economy right now, as climate change driven smoke keeps visitors away and disrupts the industries the region depends on.

In this conversation, Fred and I talk about what this summer's air quality crisis means for Northern Wisconsin's forestry and tourism economies, what his legislative record tells voters about how he'd operate in Washington, what pulled him out of retirement in Bayfield and back into public life, where he thinks Democrats have gotten this district wrong, and why he believes he's the one who can flip a seat that's been out of reach for over a decade.

Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District primary is August 11th. This is the seat Tom Tiffany is vacating to run for governor — and for the first time in years, it's genuinely competitive.
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Dr. Kristin Lyerly is an OB-GYN based in northeast Wisconsin and a leading voice on healthcare, politics, and the issues shaping our collective future. As the named physician plaintiff in a landmark Wisconsin abortion decision, she brings a perspective to these conversations that goes beyond politics. New episodes drop every week. Subscribe to stay current on reproductive rights, health politics, all things Wisconsin, and everything else that matters.

Producer: Abraham Lyerly
Music: Nic Tierman
Graphics: Nathaniel Gonzalez