Smoke from Canadian wildfires is being blown into the Chilkat Valley, at times cloaking the area with a haze, and it’s likely to get worse later this week.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation put out an air quality advisory on Wednesday that is set to remain in place until Friday afternoon. The greatest impact for the smoky conditions will likely be in Haines and Skagay, according to the advisory.
The smoke has been a topic of conversation in the Chilkat Valley but does not appear to have caused any major problems.
Drake Olson, owner of Fly Drake air service, said he hasn’t been impacted by the cloudy and smoky weather. But he said that he doesn’t do a lot of flightseeing which would be an activity most likely impacted by smoke.
“At a certain point, it kind of settled into some parts of Glacier Bay,” he said. “But it all sort of depends on how the smoke comes in and where it goes.”
Paul Swanstrom, owner of Mountain Flying Service, echoed that sentiment.
“It’s not that big of a deal yet, we’ve had much worse,” he said. “If you’re standing at the airport and you can’t see the Chilkat Range, it’s bad.”
The smoke is coming over the mountains and through passes from British Columbia where there are currently more than 87 fires burning, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Another nine are burning in the Yukon Territory.
According to the Fire Centre, the two closest to the Chilkat Valley are currently burning out of control, an important part of ecosystem management and forest regeneration when it doesn’t threaten communities.
Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation meteorologist Mark Smith said there are a lot of sea breezes and wind that comes through channels, rivers and tributaries that tend to clear things out in Southeast Alaska, so typically most of the region would be smoke free.
When there are Canadian wildfires, he said he generally sees impact in Haines, Skagway and occasionally Petersburg.
But even if flames aren’t an imminent threat to valley residents, smoke from wildfires can affect people’s health.
According to the state’s advisory, the air quality could dip into the unhealthy range over the next few days, meaning that people with respiratory or heart disease, the elderly and children should avoid prolonged exertion, while everyone else should limit it.
There are a few places in Haines with air monitors, including one DEC operates as part of its Community-Based Air Monitoring network. There are also PurpleAir monitors in both Haines and Klukwan; both were showing satisfactory air quality as of press time. Those are low-cost sensors that collect real time air quality data that’s shared in a public map at map.purpleair.com.