The Chilliwack
Progress Thursday
38
23
Sports
Scene
32
Fitness
Complaint
Harrison
Exercise
Parents take concerns to Human Rights Tribunal.
Inez hits Harrison beach this weekend.
Don’t let fitness take a vacation this summer.
Y O U R C O M M U N I T Y N E W S PA P E R • F O U N D E D I N 1 8 9 1 • W W W. T H E P R O G R E S S . C O M • T H U R S D AY, J U LY 1 2 , 2 0 1 2
Siberian smoke fades, U.S. fires may add to haze
■ S UMMERTIME C OOL D OWN
No air quality advisories issued for the region yet Jeff Nagel Black Press The phenomenon of smoke wafting here from wildfires in Siberia is no longer a significant factor behind hazy skies over the Fraser Valley, according to Metro Vancouver officials. Russian fires were blamed Monday by air quality officials for a near-doubling in fine particulate levels over the past weekend. The Air Quality Index was forecast to climb to four out of 10 on Wednesday in Chilliwack, posing a “moderate health risk.” “The situation is now changing,” Metro Vancouver spokesman Glenn Bohn said Wednesday. “The influence of smoke from the Asian fires has mostly ended. The concentrations of fine particulates have decreased.” But he said fires burning in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California could send more smoke into B.C. in the days ahead, depending on the weather. So far Metro officials are watching conditions and haven’t yet issued any air quality advisories. Air quality experts recently unveiled a new website that rates air visibility at key sites around the Lower Mainland using a network of automated cameras. The ratings and images can be viewed at clearairbc.ca.
Satellite image clearly shows bands of smoke over the Olympic Peninsula and the Fraser Valley. NASA
Peyton Mash, 14 months, cautiously approaches a water fountain outside the Cheam Centre on Wednesday morning. Temperatures reached about 27 yesterday, and are expected to rise to 30 by Saturday. JENNA HAUCK/ PROGRESS
Mosquitoes arrive as water drops Robert Freeman The Progress Skeeters sucking the fun out of your outdoor activities now that the sun has finally shown its face in the Fraser Valley? Well, it’s too late to do anything about it, except take evasive measures: use insect repellent, wear long-sleeved light-coloured clothing, and avoid the dawn and dusk hours when mosquitoes are most active. Blame it all on the nearflood level of Fraser River
waters this year that washed over mosquito eggs laid in years past, and that seeped through dikes to reactivate breeding grounds all along the river. The river water is receding now, but the mosquitoes that survived a barrage of larviciding and reached adulthood are flying far and wide — five kilometres or more with a good breeze behind them — in search of a blood meal. The mosquitoes you are slapping away from your face today are about a quarter of
$1.25 1-12T CS17
the way through their one- to two-month life cycle, meaning about six more weeks of aggravation. Unless the weather cooperates with a long, hot, dry spell and no more “pulses” of high water coming down the Fraser. “If it stays hot enough and dry enough they’ll die quicker,” said Dirk Lewis, a biologist at Morrow BioScience and the mosquito man for the Fraser Valley Regional District. Morrow has been battling skeeters in the Fraser Valley
since 1989. Since early April this year Morrow and a team of four assistants waded and paddled into swampy mosquito breeding grounds to apply a bacterial agent that kills the larvae before they reach adulthood and sprout wings. The team applied the larvicide — by hand and by helicopter — to 500 more hectares this year than in 2011, covering about 2,000 hectares in total throughout the Fraser Valley region. Continued: SKEETERS/ p7