The unexpected upside of wildfire smoke

Colin Penner, who farms about 3,700 acres an hour's drive north of the U.S. border, crunched up a handful of plump canola pods and blew the chaff into a stiff prairie breeze. A small pile of tiny black seeds remained in his palm. Last summer, high heat and harsh sun scorched canola's yellow flowers and ruined their pollen, knocking down yields across Western Canada. This summer, smoke from nearby wildfires shrouded the July skies and protected Penner's young crop from the sun's burning rays, resulting in more seeds per pod and more pods per plant. "Look at all these pods,"…