Wildfires are burning through thousands of acres of forest in Northern Minnesota damaging buildings and forcing residents to evacuate their homes. The yet-to-be-contained Camp House fire, Jenkins Creek fire and Munger Shaw fire have a small accomplice to thank for their continued destruction: spruce budworms, a well-known pest that has terrorized Minnesota forests for at least half a century, killing trees and making them more susceptible to fire. The fires’ other helper? Humans. “Spruce budworm’s largest impact, in my opinion, is that it can help perpetuate dense stands of balsam fir on the landscape that are fire prone,” said Mike Reinikainen, a silviculture program consultant with the state’s Department of Natural Resources’ forestry division. Much of the area was infected by spruce budworms, whose infestations worsened the Greenwood fire near Isabella, Minn. in 2021.