People in Burns Lake and the Grassy Plains area may be noticing smoke today from a wildfire burning in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.

The Northwest Fire Centre says the haze and smoke will likely hang over the area through the weekend.

The province is letting the blaze near Entiako Lake burn, although it has taken steps to protect cabins in the area and is monitoring the fire daily from the air.  The fire now covers about 17-hundred hectares.

The province notes wildfires benefit the environment by returning nutrients to the soil and creating new habitat and they remove built-up forest fuels that could otherwise result in worse fires.