Tsunami debris hits peninsula — Officials ponder how to handle possibly radioactive material

By Naomi Klouda

Photo courtesy of KITV.com/ABC. Debris from the tsunami that hit Japan on March 11 is being spotted in Alaska waters.

Homer Tribune

A few beachcombers are reporting they believe they are finding objects along southern Kenai Peninsula beaches that came from a Japanese debris field afloat in the Pacific Ocean.

So far, the reports are unconfirmed in Kachemak Bay.

Mundane bottles, construction supplies and a lonely shoe have been among the items found along the West Coast, from Oregon beaches to British Columbia and Alaska. In Kodiak, a beachcomber found buoys that were confirmed as wreckage from the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that wracked the Japanese coast on March 11.

But if intriguing items are found, people are urged to not pick any of it up. Make a record and contact either Cook Inletkeeper or the Homer Fire Department.

Inletkeeper’s Bob Shavelson was at work Monday locating a Geiger counter online to purchase for measuring any radioactive presence on debris that floats ashore on Kachemak Bay beaches. The thought is that any materials from the meltdown of Japanese nuclear reactors that also occurred as the March tragedy unfolded could make some materials hazardous.

“What we need is a contingency plan, in case any potential hazardous debris gets here,” Shavelson said. A local plan isn’t in place yet, but NOAA has issued extensive guidelines.

Beachcombers should handle any suspected items with care, advises the NOAA National Ocean Service through its Marine Debris Program. A website is devoted to a full range of frequently asked questions to guide coastal residents who like to walk the beach and notice what comes ashore. One big question is whether the debris is radioactive.

Science of the Seasons: Needling concern — Plant rust looks bad but rarely does serious damage to trees

By Dr. David Wartinbee for the Redoubt Reporter

Photos courtesy of Dr. David Wartinbee. An orange streak, caused by rust spores, is seen on the water of Upper Twin Lakes in Lake Clark National Park.

It appears that a common plant pathogen this summer, the spruce needle rust, may have been the cause of a national news event and a couple interesting sightings in Western Alaska.

This past summer I made several exciting trips to the Twin Lakes area of Lake Clark National Park. These visits were primarily to see Dick Proenneke’s cabin and to get to know the area nearby. Time was spent hiking different trails and berry-picking in places Proenneke wrote about in his book, “One Man’s Wilderness.”

At one point, as I picked berries in a boggy area, I noticed that a number of nearby spruce trees seemed to have yellowish colors on their limbs. On closer examination, it was only the tips of the branches — specifically, the newest needles — that seemed to be infected by some unknown disease.

I took a few pictures and returned to my exploration of the area. About a week later during another visit, I noticed that there was a yellowish-orange streak on the water surface of a cove on Upper Twin Lakes. Again, I took a few pictures and went on about exploring additional areas around the lake. When I returned home and looked at the pictures and thought about what I had seen over the past couple weeks, things started to click.

Was I seeing something similar to what had made national news earlier in Kivalena, when an orange substance was seen on the water this summer? That incident was described as a massive layer of light yellow-orange “stuff” floating on the surface of the inlet. The same material was also seen on the surface of water-filled buckets around town.

Anti-coal force digs in against governor

By Naomi Klouda

Photos courtesy of Judy Heilman, Chuitna Citizen’s Coalition. The Chuit River flows through the proposed Chuitna Mine area on the west side of Cook Inlet, 45 miles from Anchorage. The state recently opposed a petition to protect the river from PacRim Coal’s strip-mining plans.

Homer Tribune

When Gov. Sean Parnell’s administration concluded that PacRim Coal’s proposed mine through 11 miles of salmon stream is not unsuitable, those who fought to protect the river were only temporarily stunned.

“This is just a bump on the road. We’re not giving up,” said Bobbi Burnett, secretary-treasurer of the Chuitna Citizen’s Coalition. “The salmon are more important. They can last hundreds of thousands of years, but the coal will be done in 25 years.”

In the two weeks since Gov. Parnell and the Alaska Department of Natural Resources dismissed an unsuitable lands petition filed by local citizens, the public awareness campaign on behalf of the river may have finally reached mainstream Alaskans.

Gov. Parnell is being called to the mat in a flood of mail to his office and in a public war waged through a letters campaign. With the decision Chuitna has achieved name recognition closer to par with the proposed Pebble Mine, its proponents hope. In its obscure but central location 45 miles west of Anchorage, the governor’s rejection has helped wake a matter that rested uncomfortably under the rug. Or, in this case, under the rich peat moss of a fertile coal bed that also cuts through a rich, intact salmon stream featuring five healthy species’ runs.

“Gov. Parnell should be ashamed of himself,” said Judy Heilman, president of the Chuitna Citizens Coalition, whose admonishment of the state’s position made it into nearly every newspaper in the state. “We trusted the governor when he said his administration would never trade one resource for another. But now it’s clear. The governor is willing to trade our salmon and fishing jobs in exchange for coal to power China.”

“Initiatives and petitions are important, lawful expressions of citizens’ views. Still, the state permitting process is the place where all individual Alaskans and local communities can express their support or opposition to a project. Alaska has one of the most extensive permitting processes designed to assure public input counts and scientific evidence is considered,” said Sharon Leighow, press secretary for Gov. Parnell’s office.

“Local initiatives or petitions must be turned away if they attempt to favor narrow slices of environmental or industry interests over all Alaskans’ interests,” Leighow  said. “Where the resources of our state belong to all the people, the governor remains committed to assuring every Alaskan’s voice is heard in a lawful permitting process.”

King salmon’s reign ending? Salmon thrived millions of years, declined in past few hundred

By Naomi Klouda

Photo by Homer Tribune. David Montgomery signs copies of his book at a presentation in Homer on Thursday.

Homer Tribune

Fossil records show a family tree of Pacific salmon dating back millions years. One weighed 300 pounds, sprawled 10 feet long and was named the Saber Tooth due to its protruding fanglike teeth.

Its branch fell from the family tree into extinction before the last ice age, sometime about 3 million years ago.

Salmon inhabited their streams before humans evolved, David R. Montgomery told a packed audience Thursday night at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitors Center.

It was an appreciative audience of school kids, parents, teachers, biologists, fishermen, conservationists, journalists and a few politicians — all interested in a favorite local subject: the salmon.

Montgomery, who won a MacArthur genius fellowship in 2008, is an expert on the history of salmon, albeit via an unorthodox route. He’s a geologist, interested in rocks, soil, the rise of mountains and the fall of riverbeds, all of which relates to a fish which evolved in the upheavals of millennial landscaping. He is professor of earth and space sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he leads the Geomorphological Research Group and is a member of the Quaternary Research Center.

In Homer, he gave talks on the history of salmon, based on research published in his book, “King of Fish: The Thousand Year-Run of Salmon.”

Though he identifies himself as a geologist, Montgomery said he grew interested in salmon as part of the geologic story.

“When you look at salmon in geologic time, you come to see it maps the changes in the landscape,

the evolution of mountain ranges. It relates to the drainage of basins and in topography.”

Kasilof rules up for review — Comments open for special use area

By Jenny Neyman

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. From left, volunteers Mike Wiley, Ricky Gease, Bob McCard and Harry Miller stabilize a piece of guardrail while Brent Johnson uses a Bobcat to drive a post into the sand in late July as part of a fencing project to protect the grass-covered dunes and estuary areas on the south beach at the mouth of the Kasilof River.

Redoubt Reporter

Proposed regulations for the newly created Kasilof River Special Use Area are out for public comment until Nov. 18, but whether or not those regulations go into effect in time for next summer’s personal-use set-net and dip-net fisheries, or ever, for that matter, remains to be seen.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Mining, Land and Water released proposed regulations Oct. 14 for the area at the mouth of the Kasilof River, which has seen increasing use and abuse from growing crowds in the summer, especially during the personal-use fisheries.

A series of public meetings and discussions were held, which at times became heated with frustration, both at the habitat damages resulting from growing use of the area, and with distrust that DNR would turn the area into an overmanaged park by limiting access, restricting traditional uses or charging fees.

In May, the 1,010-acre state-owned area was designated as a special-use area, which means the department can enact additional regulations, specific to the area and targeted to prevent or better manage certain activities, beyond the broad regulations that apply to all state land.

Generally allowed uses of state land describe what can be done without a permit on all state lands classified for general use — such as hiking, camping, cutting firewood, operating vehicles, discharging firearms, etc. Once an area is designated as a special-use area, different regulations can be applied beyond the generally allowed use rules.

In public meetings over the winter, Kasilof-area residents voiced concerns that DNR would create regulations targeted to control the crowds of seasonal visitors that were more restrictive than year-round residents of the area would like, such as outlawing trapping or shooting, or charging fees to access the area.

The regulations released Oct. 14 don’t contain any surprises from what DNR discussed last spring. They are mostly crowd-control measures — no littering, no disposing of fish waste above the tideline, time limits on camping, restrictions on cutting trees and vandalizing state-owned or authorized facilities or property, etc.

There are no fees included in the proposed regulations.

“These regulations do not include fees. Fees are not anticipated at this time, as far as I know,” said Joe Joyner, chief of the program support section of the Division of Mining, Land and Water. If DNR did want to implement fees in the future, the fee schedule would have to go out to public comment, Joyner said.

The public has until 5 p.m. Nov. 18 to submit comments on the proposed regulations.

Copper the culprit? Amphibian deformation studies continue on the Kenai

Photos courtesy of Meg Perdue, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Studies continue on frogs with limb deformities found on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Observed abnormalities include ectromelia — part of limb missing; amelia — an entire limb missing; and
micromelia — a shrunken limb.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

What’s worse than being a frog — a major link in the food chain and a creature that’s acutely susceptible to deformations from exposure to contaminants or other changes in their environment?

Try being a biologist attempting to tease out definitive conclusions from studying them.

“It’s really hard to nail these things down. That’s what makes science challenging,” said Meg Perdue, a biologist specializing in environmental contaminants for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

She’s one of the researchers involved in continuing studies of amphibians on national refuges in Alaska, including the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. The latest iteration of that monitoring project is a study focused specifically on the Kenai in an attempt to discern why, out of the five refuges monitored in the state, the Kenai is showing a higher incidence of frog deformations than any other.

“Out of the monitoring work, when we saw higher rates in Kenai, we focused a study trying to come up with correlations with the malformations,” Perdue said.

This program of amphibian monitoring is a nationwide effort dating back to the mid-1990s when a high number of amphibian deformations — specifically, frogs with extra limbs — was noticed on a refuge in Minnesota.

Frogs are considered a bellwether species, a sort of canary-in-the-coal-mine indicator of changes in an environment, because amphibians are very susceptible to contaminants and other changes in their ecology.

“They tend to bridge multiple environments and their developmental process is out in the environment, unlike mammals and birds that are more protected. Bird eggs at least have a hard shell, and mammals, their embryos are internalized, but frog eggs are just out there in the media and therefore have lot of exposure because of how permeable amphibians are in terms of that interface with the environment,” Perdue said.

8 legs, new tattoo, what’s an octopus to do?

By Naomi Klouda

Photo courtesy of Homer Tribune. A giant octopus is found aboard a fishing vessel.

Homer Tribune

What marine animal can unscrew the lid of a jar, squeeze into a water jug, shoot out clouds of ink to mimic its own shape and tear off scientific tags meant to track him?

The octopus holds uncanny intelligence indicating an ability to problem solve, said marine biologist and diver, Reid Brewer. He is at work on a doctorate with the University of Alaska Fairbanks as he gathers baseline studies of octopus habitat. Large crowds attended his weekend lectures during the National Wildlife Month at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center in Homer. The talk, “Octopus and other creatures run wild,” was accompanied by photos of the cephalopod’s little-known underwater world off the Aleutian Islands.

“This is such a fun talk to give because people really like to hear about octopus, and they are really curious about these creatures,” Brewer said. “This especially is a popular topic with fishermen. For a lot of people, the octopus is an amazing, favorite critter.”

Giant octopus are rumored to be up to 30 feet long. But the largest Brewer ever witnessed came to 18 feet and weighed about 600 pounds.

Science of the Seasons: Phantom bugs can barely be seen

By Dr. David Wartinbee, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photos courtesy of Dr. David Wartinbee. These phantom midges are only three-quarters of an inch long. The dark spots are eyes, just behind the pointed mouth area, with two pairs of dark hydrostatic organs in the thorax and far end of the abdomen. These organs control the larval movements up and down in the water column.

Ever since August when I saw a huge mass of bright red larval mites drifting across part of East Mackey Lake, I have been wondering if the mites had been successful parasitizing any of the aquatic insects in the lake.

The experts I contacted indicated that this massive swarm might have been a way for them to find unfortunate hosts. Last week, I took my dip net and collected a number of insects and other invertebrates from the lake. After a lot of very careful looking under a microscope, I did find some parasitized insects, which I’ll discuss in a future article. There were also several creatures in my first sweep that caught my immediate attention — dozens of phantom midges darting about in my collection pan.

Phantom midges are relatives of the mosquito but do not bite. The particular ones I found were in the genus Chaoborus. Thinking back, these were the very first aquatic insects I saw when I was doing a senior project as an undergraduate biology major. I was sampling bottom sediments of a local reservoir and I remember seeing something moving in the collection pan, but was unable to tell what it was. The insects were crystal clear, about three-quarters of an inch long, and only a couple dark spots stood out in clear water. The name phantom midge was certainly appropriate.

These creatures are the larval form of a small dipteran insect found all over the world. Knowing how widely distributed they are, I should not have been surprised to see them here in Alaska. Maybe my surprise came because I have always found them in waters that were tens or hundreds of meters deep, instead of in a waist-deep section of lake. Depending on the species, they spend between six months and two years as a larval individual in a lake. They have a short pupal stage, then emerge as an aerial adult. The adults mate, lay eggs and die within a couple weeks and the cycle starts all over.

Science of the Seasons: Liking lichen — Ground cover colors fall views

By Dr. David Wartinbee, for the Redoubt Reporter

Photos courtesy of Dr. David Wartinbee. Lichen growth in an alpine meadow appears light green against the darker green foliage. These lichen patches are food for caribou during the winter months.

Each fall we head out to some secret places to pick low-bush cranberries. They are actually lingonberries, but who cares when you are mixing that sweet sauce with your Thanksgiving turkey?

This weekend we spent several hours walking and crawling through moist hummocks of sphagnum that are laced with the tiny plants that produce the treasured berries. We picked a gallon of berries before midday and considered it a successful excursion. They will be washed and frozen until it’s time to make sauce or put them in various muffins.

While out harvesting, I kept finding something else to pick at my attention — various forms of lichens, and there seemed to be a new growth form just about every time I turned around.

I seem to have lichens on the brain lately. Last weekend I noticed many bright-orange lichens on rocks around Skilak Lake. Back a few weeks, I had been so taken by the diverse colors of lichens on rocks above tree line that I took pictures hoping to capture their beautiful patterns. And friends in Wasilla, who raise reindeer, just returned from a trip to collect lichens as a winter treat for their animals.

Almanac: Bare bones history — Emerging fossil record offers hints to big wildlife of the past

Editor’s note: This story concerning mammoths on the Kenai Peninsula is a follow-up to the two-part article that appeared Sept. 7 and Sept. 14 in the Redoubt Reporter.

By Clark Fair

Photo courtesy of Richard D. Reger, Ph.D.. This portion of a mammoth tusk is one of 11 mammoth “elements” discovered on the southern Kenai Peninsula.

Redoubt Reporter

The flood of 2002 changed everything.

And in wreaking such change, the flood revealed what has thus far been the most important piece in an intriguing archaeological and geological puzzle — the existence of mammoths on the Kenai Peninsula.

Prior to the flood, Phil Gordon, of Homer, had been “putzing around” up Deep Creek for years, fighting through a mass of vegetation that he referred to as “a stinking jungle, all full of bears and brush and barely passable.”

After the flood, however, the whole lower Deep Creek area opened up.

“It changed the river and topography enormously,” Gordon said. “It was a veritable freeway.”

Usually, Gordon trekked upstream with a friend, typically on a fishing excursion. Such was the case in the late summer after the flood.

“My buddy and I were fishing for dollies,” Gordon said. “He is a great fisherman, but I am sort of an indifferent fisherman. It’s a good excuse to go, but if I don’t catch anything it can be every bit as good. He’s busy casting and fishing and changing lures and trying flies, and I’m busy seeing what I can see.”

Gordon said he found, “A variety of bear bones, a number of moose antlers and a huge variety of things that had been unearthed by that enormous flood,” and he delighted in the search at the expense of the fishing.

“I was just happy, happy, happy,” he said. “I walked across a bit of a sandbar, and there was just about 4 inches of the midpart of the tusk showing. It’s brownish and it looks like wood, but there was something about it that arrested my gaze, so I stopped and walked back.

“I often do this. I’m not great at making miles and miles and miles. I used to run everywhere, but these days I spend a lot more time just looking around. So I dug it out. It’s not a monster. It’s not the whole tusk, certainly not the whole mammoth, but it was a hoot to find because I had a pretty good idea what it was.”

Almanac: Chipping away at a mystery — Scientists ponder possibility of woolly mammoths once roaming the Kenai Peninsula

Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part story concerning the possibility that mammoths once roamed the Kenai Peninsula. Last week, part one recounted the search for fossil evidence and the public involvement in that search. This week’s story describes the mammoths themselves and their habitat, and the science that attempts to connect them to the Kenai.

By Clark Fair

Photo courtesy of Richard D. Reger, Ph.D. With his right index finger, Soldotna geologist Dick Reger indicates the site at which Homer dentist, Dr. Edward Todd, extracted a sample from this fossilized mammoth molar.

Redoubt Reporter

Soldotna geologist Dick Reger is quick to point out that what he and Homer field archaeologist Janet Klein believe about the possibility of woolly mammoths once roaming the Kenai Peninsula is a hypothesis and not a theory.

“The magnitude of evidence that we have is pretty damn small, compared to what we need to have to make it a theory,” Reger said. “It may never be a theory — probably won’t — and that’s OK. That’s the way science works. That’s the fun of it.”

The Random House Webster’s College Dictionary defines hypothesis as a “provisional theory set forth to explain some class of phenomena, either accepted as a guide to future investigation (working hypothesis) or assumed for the sake of argument and testing.”

Both Reger and Klein have stated that they believe that mammoths were once here, but they want to know when, they want to know where, and they want to be sure. In other words, they want more proof.

To solidify their evidence — 11 mammoth fossils so far, plus one steppe bison fossil, all found between Clam Gulch and the Homer Spit — they want to perform more radiocarbon dating. They also want to find more fossils, or have others find them. And they really, really want to find a fossil in situ, a Latin term meaning literally “in place.” More specifically, “situated in its original or natural place or position.”

Almanac: Fossil finds — Kenai Peninsula home to mammoth wild life

Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part story concerning the possibility that mammoths once roamed the Kenai Peninsula. This week’s story recounts the search for fossil evidence, and the public involvement in that search. Next week’s story will describe the mammoths themselves and their habitat, and the science that attempts to connect them to the Kenai.

By Clark Fair

Illustration from Wikipedia. Fossil discoveries suggest woolly mammoths once roamed the Kenai Peninsula.

Redoubt Reporter

The discovery might never have occurred if the dog hadn’t been so annoying.

It was the summer of 2010, and Kasilof resident Kevin Culhane and his friend, Tim Oliver, had been beachcombing for fossils for several hours along a stretch of sand and gravel south of Clam Gulch. They had walked a considerable distance down the beach and were back within sight of their truck when the trouble began.

Ava, Oliver’s excitable yellow Lab, “got all agitated,” Culhane said. “She started jumping up, trying to knock us down.”

Irritated, Culhane told the dog to leave them alone.

“Go find a fossil!” he hollered.

About 10 minutes later, he said, she did just that.

Behind the two men, Ava had located something enticing.

“I heard rocks clanking together, and I looked right where we just walked, looked behind us about 75 to 80 feet back, and this dog was chasing a rock around,” Culhane said. “So I walked back there and picked up the rock and thought, ‘Oh, that’s a cool-looking rock,’ and threw it in the backpack with the other rocks and didn’t think about it.

“The next day I dumped out the rock pile and showed my dad (Jim Culhane), and he goes, ‘Holy s—, that looks like a

Photo courtesy of Richard D. Reger, Ph.D. The core from the horn of a steppe bison was discovered during the last decade on the beach near Diamond Creek.

mammoth tooth!’ And it turned out to be.”