Wednesday - Dec. 11, 2024 - Why wildfire smoke increases stress

🌤 High 7C

Good morning!

Today, we have our now-annual local book gift guide. On Saturday, I snuck into The Bookman and found a couple more Le Carre books I’d never read. I tend to chiefly read books through the library (or the Libby app) and I don’t have enough money to buy books for the sake of buying them. But there’s also a certain value that comes from owning a book—the ability to have it on the shelf or the nightstand and be able to have it in reserve at any one time. They’re also a pretty damn good deal, if you think about the amount of money you spend on a book and the time you put into it. And, of course, there’s the fact that (like with this newsletter), if you don’t support authors with money, you can’t really complain if and when their books disappear.

Anyways, without further ado, I thought I’d mention a couple quick books that have been on my mind lately.

I recently finished The Fraud, by Zadie Smith. It was the first novel I’ve read by the author, who is quite well-known. The book was interesting and a fun look at the Tichborne Case, a fascinating legal mystery in Victorian England.

I have a friend going to Barcelona in the spring and am trying to dig up a copy of Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia for him. Orwell’s unflinching, clear-headed account of the Spanish civil war was one of the books that confirmed to me that I really did want to be a journalist.

Finally, here are two of my favourite books of all-time. 1) Clockers by Richard Price is a street-level look at crime in late ‘80s New Jersey that inspired The Wire, one of the best TV shows of all time; 2) 2666 by Roberto Bolaño is a very dense and tangled novel revolving around a series of murders in Mexico—the book is huge and rewards slow and incremental reading.

– Tyler

Traffic & Weather

🌤 Local forecast: Langley | Chilliwack | Abbotsford | Hope (We have had to temporarily change our forecast links to the Weather Network due to a technical error.)

🚘 Driving today? Check the current traffic situation via Google, and find DriveBC’s latest updates.

🛣 Click here for links to road cameras across the Fraser Valley, including those for the Coquihalla, Highway 7, Hope-Princeton, Fraser Canyon, and Highway 1 in Langley and Abbotsford.

NEWS

The 2024 FVC Christmas book guide

In Iceland, Christmas includes a traditional flood—one of books rather than water. And in the Fraser Valley, there are enough local authors to generate a tidal wave of literature.

Jólabókaflóðið, which roughly translates to “Christmas book flood,” began in the Second World War after Iceland’s independence. Paper was one of the few unrationed commodities during the war, and book-giving surged as a result. Today, the tradition continues with legions of Icelandic shoppers sending books to their family and friends—and people worldwide are joining the tradition as well.

Here in the Fraser Valley, we are facilitating any book floods you may want to begin with our curated list of Fraser Valley literature. The books include non-fiction accounts of life in the valley and canyon, fictional forays by local authors, local picture books, and more—nearly all of which were published in the last year.

We also have an expansive and varied selection of books recommended by other FVC readers, from murder mysteries to gold rush histories.

• Today, get started on your own Jólabókaflóðið with our list of books by Fraser Valley authors.

• Our friends at The Tyee have put together their own holiday reading list. You can find it here. 

Related

Need to Know

🐄 A major Abbotsford dairy farm has been placed in creditor protection after finding itself unable to pay back a $44 million loan [CBC]

👏 A senior who was once homeless gave a Langley charity its first donation for a new campaign [Langley Advance Times]

🚲 Chilliwack Restorative Justice has closed its non-profit secondhand bike store [Fraser Valley Today]

🔎 A missing Abbotsford senior who was last seen driving his vehicle at Gladwin and Downes roads has been located and is safe [Abbotsford Police/Facebook]

🚔 A notorious Chilliwack drug dealer has been arrested again [Chilliwack Progress]

🏀 An Abbotsford basketball player will play for Canada at a three-on-three international tournament this week [Abbotsford News]

🗳 The chair of Chilliwack’s parent advisory council will run for a school trustee seat in an upcoming byelection [Chilliwack Progress] / The election is expected to cost the school board about $100,000 [Chilliwack Progress]

🚑 A Langley soccer player is expected to survive after being shot near his university in Ohio; the university says he was an innocent bystander [CTV]

❌ A Korean restaurant in Chilliwack has closed [Fraser Valley Today]

💰 Abbotsford property owners are looking at a 6% tax hike (on average) [Abbotsford News]

The Agenda

UFV study shows anxiety increases with wildfire smoke

A new study by UFV kinesiologist Luisa Giles has found that a sky socked in with smoke has a real, tangible effect on people’s mental well-being.

Giles surveyed roughly 350 people on their physical activity and mental well-being both during and after periods of wildfire smoke, and found that smoky days mean more anxiety. The study found that, as might be expected, people spent more time indoors on days with more smoke. Moderate and vigorous activity—like jogging, cycling, and brisk walking—decreased by about 20 minutes. And on those days, feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression went up.

People who saw the greatest difference between their normal physical activity and smoky-day exercise tended to have the greatest increase in stress.

Finding ways to help people stay active when wildfire smoke comes into their community could help improve mental health, Giles suggested—something that could become more important if fire seasons continue to become longer and more intense.

Some potential solutions suggested in the study include increasing free or low-cost indoor activities, like the Cheam Recreation Centre’s indoor family play time, or by having local governments provide N95 masks to make outdoor recreation safer.

“When you’re in the thick of it, when you and your kids are stuck inside and you’re not feeling great, that’s not the time to be searching for resources. That’s the time to have the resources provided to you,” she said, noting that most people in her study used air quality advisories from provincial and local governments to determine the type of activity they did.

“We need to support people and telling them not to exercise may not be the best way to do it. Now is the time to be coming up with solutions.”

Giles’s full study can be read here.

Affordable homes completed on Seabird Island

New affordable homes for Sq'éwqel (Seabird Island) families, seniors, and people with disabilities have opened.

Half of the planned units have two bedrooms and two bathrooms. These were finished in late September and are all wheelchair-accessible. The rest of the 36 units in the complex are scheduled to be completed through the end of the year, and will also include townhouses with up to three bedrooms for low-income families. The next group of homes ready for tenants are expected to be completed by February 2025.

The affordable housing project on the island was announced by the province last spring, and is expected to cost $20.6 million.

- Grace Giesbrecht, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

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🗓 Things to do

Ho Ho Moo: Kids five and older are invited to Abbotsford EcoFarm for a Christmas craft workshop on Thursday. Details online.

PJHL hockey: The Abbotsford Pilots face the Aldergrove Kodiaks in Pacific Junior Hockey League action tonight at 7:15pm at the Aldergrove Community Centre. Tickets at the door.

Whos and hops: The Grinch is coming to Old Yale Brewing's Late Night Hoppy Hour on Friday at 9:30pm. Enjoy holiday brews and cocktails with Whoville's favourite mischief maker. Details online.

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