Navigating turbulent currents — Cook Inlet Aquaculture faces multiple rocks, hard places

Editor’s note: This is part three in a series of stories examining the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association. Part one was on a disease outbreak at Trail Lakes Hatchery. Part two looked at the history of CIAA. This week’s story examines the myriad challenges confronting the organization. Past stories can be read on the Redoubt Reporter’s website, http://www.redoubtreporter.wordpress.com.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Given the conditions within which the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association operates, it’s small wonder the organization has found itself on the brink of a financial crisis, with a $900,000 deficit, increasing loan payments looming on the horizon, cost-recovery fisheries that have not produced revenue as expected and a lack of capital to start up new projects that might be successful.

The very nature of how the association functions involves a mixture of factors outside its control that create a recipe for financial instability, at best, and, at worst, a level of surprise that the whole thing hasn’t already gone belly up — revenues based largely on variable fish prices and the strength of salmon runs, being subject to state and federal authority that limits CIAA’s scope of operations, and the dispassionate and sometimes disastrous effects science and biology can have on fish production.

Higher authority: Board of Fish, Mother Nature

Fish may be slippery. The rules that govern their hatching, rearing, releasing and harvesting are not. CIAA is subject to Alaska Department of Fish and Game and Board of Fish authority over its operations. It must obtain permits and approval for all major aspects of its operations — what stocks it can take eggs from, where and when it can release salmon fry and smolt, and how many it can release.

Turning the page to preservation — Kenai hosts conservator to learn to safeguard historic documents

By Jenny Neyman

Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Paper conservator Seth Irwin teaches a workshop on making archival boxes at the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center last month. Irwin is visiting museums throughout the state to repair and preserve Alaska’s massive historic paper collection.

Redoubt Reporter

Seth Irwin didn’t write the book on caring for historic documents, but he could repair it and teach a museum how to properly preserve it.

The paper conservator is making the rounds of museums throughout the state, assessing historic paper collections, repairing damaged books, documents and photos, instructing staff on proper paper conservation techniques and giving workshops for the public, made possible by a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation.

It’s a massive job, and one that hasn’t been tackled before in Alaska. The conservation world has three areas of expertise — object, paintings and paper conservation. Alaska has only three object conservators, trained to repair and preserve all the state’s important “stuff” —relics, artifacts and the like from Native, Russian and early American times.

There is no painting conservator in the state, so all repair and preservation work requiring a conservator’s specialized touch needs to be sent Outside. Before Irwin started his residencies at Alaska museums in March, there was no paper conservator, either. But there is plenty of paper that needs conserving.

“The state’s got a huge historical paper collection. It’s absolutely massive,” Irwin said. “Originally I was only supposed to be at three institutions and it quickly grew to nine.”

One element of his work is simply figuring out what’s at an institution and the condition of its materials.

“There’s never really been a full assessment of all the paper collections in the state, so that’s part of what’s been happening is doing assessment reports for many of the museums, just so they can see what they have. It’s assessing the state of collection — this is the collection, this is how it’s stored, these are the dangers, these are the emergencies you have to deal with right now, these are the suggestions for what I would recommend you guys do,” he said.

All eyes on potato sprouts — Take care at harvest, over winter to plant terrific tubers come spring

By Joseph Robertia

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. In addition to Campbell’s presentation, garden club members also held a “potato pageant” for unusual shaped tubers, such as this heart-shaped spud grown by Michelle Martin.

Redoubt Reporter

As the first frosts are coating grass and leaves at night, gardeners are harvesting the last of their seasonal crops. Some are eaten fresh, some are canned to enjoy at a later time, and some are stored to use as next season’s starters.

Among the most commonly grown vegetables in Alaska is the potato. While this may seem like an effortless crop, there are a few things to know before you attempt to grow, according to Bill Campbell, an agronomist with the Alaska Plant Materials Center in Palmer, and last week’s speaker at the Central Peninsula Garden Club’s monthly meeting.

Campbell is known as “Mr. Potato” in gardening circles, and even called “Darth Tater” by his children. Nicknames aside, Campbell said he enjoys speaking for the tuber that has many eyes, but no mouth, and thus can’t speak for itself.

“Never plant potatoes from the grocery store,” is an essential idea he imparted to the crowd of several dozen green thumbs at the garden club meeting Oct. 5 at the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Building.

Store-bought spuds from Outside can introduce diseases to Alaska. Campbell said that there are roughly 40 viruses that can affect potatoes, in addition to bacterial and fungal infections. Many of these diseases can be spread by people, gardening tools, pets and insects.

In one study in which Campbell was involved, researchers cut a potato known to have a virus, then cut 100 virus-free potatoes with the same knife. By the end of the study all 100 had developed the virus.

“That’s why it’s best to only use potatoes from certified growers,” he said.

Trotting out a new trail — T-200 plans changes to stay in the race

By Joseph Robertia

Photo by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. A dog gets excited before leaving the starting line of the 2010 Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race. Organizers are busy planning this season’s event and have already made a few changes to the race.

Redoubt Reporter

As the mercury drops, more than just dog mushers are thinking about the coming winter. Tustumena 200 Sled Dog Race organizers are also already busy planning this season’s event.

“It’s coming along, but there’s still a lot to do,” said Tammi Murray, the T-200 executive director.

This year’s race is scheduled for Jan. 29, one week later than originally planned.

“We moved it so that it wouldn’t conflict with the Kuskokwim 300, which was the same weekend,” Murray said. “It’s just one change of a few we’ve made.”

The race’s ceremonial start in Kenai was discontinued several years ago, and this year the pre-race banquet in Soldotna will also be removed.

“It just wasn’t working out for us. It was a lot of time and effort on the volunteers and it just wasn’t good to start that weekend with everyone already tired,” Murray said. “So now it will just be veterinary checks and the mandatory mushers’ meeting the Friday before.”

The pre-race banquet was traditionally where mushers drew their starting orders randomly out of a hat. Without this event, Murray said starting orders will now be determined based on the order mushers sign up.

“It’ll be first come, first served,” she said.

Old Duck Hunter: Spruce grouse on wing: Who’s stupid now?

By Steve Meyer, for the Redoubt Reporter

Stupid chicken, fool’s hen and gravel eater are a few of the names with which Alaskans have saddled Falcipennis Canadensis, otherwise known as the spruce grouse. These not-so-flattering names are arrived at by the behavior of this game bird, that oftentimes seems stupid in the extreme. So much so that in some areas, where they have no real experience with humans, the birds can be approached and literally beat with a stick.

Driving gravel roads in the fall in Alaska’s boreal forests will provide easy sightings of these gorgeous birds, sitting along the road, picking gravel. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to suggest that 99 percent of spruce grouse harvested in Alaska are taken along a gravel road.

It also wouldn’t be a stretch to suggest that many of them are taken illegally — that is, the person harvesting takes them from the road, while the birds are on the road. Given that method of harvest, the spruce grouse is not much of a challenge. But head into the places they live, and it is practically an entirely different species, and one of the most challenging wing-shooting game birds out there.

But first a word on the birds’ supposed lack of intellect. As with most wild creatures, spruce grouse are driven more by instinct than intellect. What is mistaken for stupidity is really the natural way spruce grouse survive in the wild. They are very well-camouflaged, oftentimes even difficult to see sitting on the side of the road. Their natural camouflage has instinctually made them sit in place, not moving, lest they expose themselves to whatever predators happen along. This is particularly critical for avoiding birds of prey.

Unfortunately for the spruce grouse, humans, with their ability to engage at distance, are easily able to harvest these unsuspecting birds as they sit, believing they are hidden. Thus, the opinion they are “stupid.”

When other species are pressured from encroachment of civilization their numbers drop and regulation comes into play. Not so with the spruce grouse. This “stupid” bird flourishes throughout Alaska even with the pressures it encounters. That’s not the case with the ruffed grouse, a much more respected member of the grouse family.

Science of the Seasons: Pretty interesting — Sedge darner dragonflies are colorful creatures

By Dr. David Wartinbee, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photos courtesy of Dr. David Wartinbee. A sedge darner dragonfly, in the Aeshnidae family, shows off its colors against the blue tail wing of a plane.

This summer, I spent a lot of time around local lakes because I added float flying to my repertoire of favorite activities. In preparation to each flight, there are a variety of preflight checks around the airplane, like pumping out float chambers and loosening the tie-down ropes. Every time I started doing things around the plane, a local inspector sped over to check out the intruder. I was a questionable visitor in an otherwise-established territory.

The inspector was a large male dragonfly, with the common name sedge darner. Those of us interested in aquatic insects know him better as Aeshna juncea. He was a colorful dragonfly with clear wings and blue-and-yellow stripes along the otherwise dark abdomen and thorax.

This dragonfly is more than 3 inches long with a wingspan of about 3 inches. It is a very agile flier that can speed around at close to 35 mph. That flight speed enables him to catch virtually any other insect and to avoid predation by most hungry birds. His head is dominated by large, multifaceted eyes that enable him to spot prey and avoid predators. Each facet is an individual eye structure called an omatidia. When all the individual omatidia are combined, these dragonflies have extraordinary vision.

Sedge darners feed voraciously on small insects, like mosquitoes, midges and other dipterans. Their diet depends on what happens to be around and available. During August, a sedge darner established a feeding territory around our gardens. While I was happy to have a mosquito-feeder in the area, I was not as pleased to watch it periodically feeding on one of my honeybees.

Interestingly, when they feed on larger prey, like a honeybee or hornet, they will land and slowly chew up the captured insect. When they capture smaller prey, like mosquitoes, they will most often continue to fly around the territory and leisurely feed on the wing.

Almanac: True variety store — Beemun’s structure has weathered several incarnations

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part story told in reverse. This is the unusual history of the metamorphosis of the Soldotna structure known today as Beemun’s. Part one covers the history from the current time back to the mid-1980s. Next week will start in the early 1980s and work back to the building’s origins.

By Clark Fair

Photo courtesy of Soldotna Historical Society. Beemun’s Variety as it appears today in Soldotna.

Redoubt Reporter

Beneath the large, modern, gray-and-white linoleum squares on the ground floor of Beemun’s Variety lies a concrete slab that dates back more than half a century and connects to business origins that predate Soldotna becoming a city — and even predate Alaska becoming a state.

That 40-by-80-foot stone foundation, a hidden marker signifying great change, is the only original piece remaining of a 52-year history that has spanned four main businesses and more than a half dozen ancillary ones.

Looking backward over the history of this structure reveals the shifting currents of local commerce and the individuals who made those shifts possible.

Rising from the ashes

Beemun’s has adjusted with the times — altering its stock as the economy shifted, tastes changed or another big-box store moved into the area and attempted to underprice them. The same sharp business acumen that has brought success to Earl and Alice Mundell in their Sol-Ken Enterprises, MCK Properties and other ventures, has seen them through the changes at Beemun’s over the years.

Drinking on the Last Frontier: Pinnacle of pints — Great American Beer Festival offers best U.S. brews

By Bill Howell, for the Redoubt Reporter

In many areas of life, certain things are the highest and greatest you can aspire to — what you might call “Everest moments.” Obviously, if you’re a mountaineer, it’s climbing Mt. Everest. For most athletes, it’s winning a gold medal at the Olympics. For a sports fan, it might be attending the Olympics, World Series or the Super Bowl, depending on the sport.

For a beer lover, it’s the Great American Beer Festival.

Held annually since 1982, the Great American Beer Festival has grown from a tiny affair taking place in a hotel meeting room in Boulder, Colo., to its current immense size. Each year the festival gets bigger, and each year it sells out sooner. This year, all festival tickets were sold out five weeks in advance.

Imagine a crowd equal to almost every man, woman and child living on the Kenai Peninsula (50,000) gathered under one huge roof, with no purpose other than to learn about and taste some of the best beers in the world, from breweries all across the U.S. This year, 455 different breweries served over 2,200 different beers to that number of people for four hours at a time at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver on Sept. 16, 17 and 18.

With breweries and brewpubs from all over the U.S., fest-goers could taste beers that they would never normally be served outside their local area. The beer booths were grouped by region. You could easily spot the “hot” breweries by the long lines of folks waiting to get a 1-ounce tasting sample of their beers.

The first thing to remember about the Great American Beer Festival (or any of the major beer festivals around the world) is that there’s as much going on outside the event as on the festival floor. The Denver Beer Fest started Sept. 10, the Friday before the festival. All across town, local beer bars held tastings, local restaurants had special dinners that paired local beers with local foods, and local breweries offered special tours and rolled out special beers. Denver is a great beer town at any time, but during the week of GABF, it becomes the best beer town in the world.

Art Seen: Piece of ‘Cake’ — Artists dig into topic with sweet success

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

“It’s a Piece of Cake” by Carol Walkiewicz.

I’ve never really liked cake. It might be genetic, because my kids have never really liked it either. The only exceptions to that rule for me are if the cake actually resembles healthy food, or if the chocolate is deep and dark and therefore obviously nutritious.

This year’s Experimental Exhibit at the Kenai Fine Art Center, the fifth annual, has as its theme “Cake,” and I’ve found there are, in fact, a few pieces that I find nutritious.

Connie Tarbox has hung a multitude of pancakes, cleverly coated in some sort of varnish to preserve them, from a big golden wheel. The “cakes” cascade down over another partially golden wheel, giving the whole piece a magical and rhythmic nature. I found that getting close to the work and looking up gave me a wonderful sense of vertigo.

The fanciful nature of all of those streaming gold lines made me feel I was bordering on a new dimension, or at the very least a crazy production or play. In her artist’s statement she declares simply, “Life is a

thrilling but tenuous journey … allowing for hope in our anxiety.”

Plugged In: Newer isn’t always better with camera upgrades

By Joseph Kashi, for the Redoubt Reporter

It’s often worth holding on to high-quality equipment that we already own and know how to use. Newer is not always better, but it’s usually more expensive.

I recently made careful image-quality comparisons between several decent digital cameras and the models currently replacing them. Under optimum conditions, the older cameras did as well or better. Images taken with my 2006 Kodak z760 and P880 cameras can be made into very nice 18-by-24 prints. No one would ever accuse current smaller-sensor Kodak cameras of that.

When used under good lighting conditions, my 2007 Canon G9 compact produces sharper images than the later G11 and G12 replacements, especially at the corners of the frame. The later G11 and G12 models do better in very dim light. Overall, there’s no major difference in image quality and I can’t justify spending several hundred dollars replacing that G9 with a G12 that’s simply not as sharp overall.

My 2008 Pentax K20d has photo sensor characteristics that are nearly indistinguishable from Pentax’s 2010 replacement model. Spend $1,600 to replace a good 2-year-old, pro-grade body? Not on my watch. Again, newer Pentax models often produce better photos under worse lighting conditions but, in most cases, using a tripod (remember those?) or careful post-processing, RAW image files eliminate any objective problems.