Working Hard...

Ok, I suppose I have a lot to talk about...lets pick up where I left off last. Last Tuesday, I got to take a tour of one of the weirs that the FWS is using to monitor salmon migration. It is really high tech, they have video cameras in the part of the weir that the fish swim through to count the fish when the weir is open. It uses the same software they use in security cameras, so it is kinda like watching criminal fish. We went to take samples, though, so they had closed the weir the day before; however, when we got to the weir, there was only one fish in the weir. Apparently the run is low this year.

The next day, I got to do more fishery stuff which was a lot more exciting. I learned how they use radio telemetry to track radio tagged fish in the river. This is fun because it requires floating 18 miles down the river in a row boat with a large radio antenna and a radio receiver. The receiver beeps whenever we would float past a fish with a tracking tag. We were looking for Steelhead (AKA rainbow trout that migrate between freshwater and the ocean) which are on their way back to the ocean, so there were not that many left in the river. Regardless of the fish, though, it was a really nice day and quite relaxing to spend my work day floating on the river. My co-workers were both very knowledgeable about birds and could identify pretty much ever bird we saw. From what I can remember, we saw loons, cormorants, Arctic turns, Bonaparte's gull, cliff swallows, golden eyes, harlequin ducks, and probably some others that I am forgetting right now.

To continue in the theme of fish and boats and water, I got to go fishing last Thursday! I went with Charlie who lives in the house with me during the weekdays so that he doesn't have to drive the hour and a half home to Homer everyday. We took his boat (a Zodiac which is kinda like a big inflatable raft with a motor) to Stormy Lake which is in the Capitan Cook State Park to fish for Northern Pike. While Northern Pike are found naturally in the Northern parts of Alaska, they have been illegally introduced on the peninsula. This is bad because the Pike have no natural predators in the peninsula, and they are “voracious predators of young salmon” as the posters we have around the office warn. As a way of combating the spread of Pike, the bag limit for Pike has been liberalized which means that people are allowed to (and encouraged to) catch as many as they can. Apparently people have been taking advantage of this on Stormy Lake because we didn't catch anything. Charlie did let me drive the boat for a while which was fun, and the lake is really nice because it is in the state park-no houses. We were the only people on the lake, so it really felt like being out in the middle of the wilderness.

The Kenai Wildlife Refuge hosted their annual wildflower day last Friday, and I got to go the even to see what their Environmental Ed program is like. It was a great day for the event, very sunny and all of the flowers were in bloom. One of the rangers led the walk I was signed up for, and at the end of the walk while I was talking to her I found out that she is a supervisor for some of the SCA interns at the Refuge. Lucky for me, she invited me to come back to the Refuge on Sunday to go on the field day that her SCA interns were scheduled for. With that in mind, I relaxed on Saturday (my first day off in 2 weeks!), and made my way back to the refuge on Sunday.



The other SCA interns are really friendly, and it was nice to hear what their experiences have been like. They are both working at the Visitor's Center on the refuge, so they are required to do hikes on the Refuge to be better equipped at answering questions. I went on two hikes with them; on the first and longest, we hiked to Fuller Lake where we ate lunch. Second, we hiked Burney's trail which led us to a great view of the mountains and lakes surrounding the Refuge. I had a great time, and the trails were beautiful especially since all the flowers were in bloom. The weather on Sunday kept on threatening to rain, but it was nice enough to hold off until after we were done hiking. Today I was back in the office just going through and organizing all of the Environmental Ed stuff and learning everything I can about salmon. I have pictures up from my hikes on my picassa site which the link for is found to the right in the links section.

Oh! Moose update: Bertha (out moose friend) has been back by the house and last time she brought her two calves! Apparently they were nursing from her, but by the time I got outside with my camera, they were done with their dinner and getting ready to lay down and take a nap with their full bellies.



Thats all for now, hopefully we will be getting internet at the house soon, so my posts will be coming more frequently once I don't have to go to the cafe in the grocery store to access internet.

Kenai River Fest=Success

This past weekend was the Kenai River Festival, and the first event that I got to participate in at my new job. We hosted the Pathway to Fishing where I taught fish anatomy and habitat and my other co-workers led fishing gear, fish handling, knot tying, and safety. Finally, we had casting practice with groups of about 20 kids lined up all flinging rubber weights tied to the end of their fishing poles at wooden fish mouths and kiddie pools. Needless to say, it was quite exciting.
The other parts of the festival were fun too, although, i only got to walk around for a few minutes. There were alot of groups supporting the management of the river, and alot of vendors selling everything from llama wool to giant baby shower cakes make out of diapers. There was live music during the entire festival, and I bet no one at Bonnaroo got to hear about 5 different versions of Rollin' On the River.
The weather was perfect on Saturday and turned good on Sunday despite the clouds in the morning. It was a fun weekend, and I am glad I got to meet some of the people out in the community even if I couldn't answer any of their fishing questions. There are no Environmental Ed. events coming up soon, so I think I may get to try my hand at sampling some Chinook. I'll let you know how that goes later.

Homer

Last Sunday me and the other guys in the house decided to take a day trip to homer which is a town about an hour south of us. Along the way, we stopped because the guys wanted to see if any of the people fishing were catching anything. Homer is on the coast, and you drop about 1000 feet just before you get there, so there are alot of really great views along the drive, and we stopped at a spot to take pictures. In Homer, we walked around the spit which is where all the shops and restaurants are and looked at the boats because one of the guys is a fan of Deadliest Catch and the Time Bandit was in Homer getting a fresh coat of paint. We also saw some interesting sea life attached to the boats. Particularly a really big star fish.
We spent the afternoon at our co-worker Charlie's house. Charlie lives on the bluff and has one of the most amazing views I have ever seen. We spent a while taking in the view of the ocean and we spotted a sea otter with a baby through the birding scope. We also saw an eagle and the little owl that is living in Charie's owl box. The weather for that day was perfect, so all in all it was a pretty fantastic day.
I put some of the pictures up in the same album as my last post, that link should still work.

So far, Moose are still exciting

Yesterday for work, one of the girls I work with took me on a great tour of Kenai and Soldotna. I saw the Soldotna museum where they had some of the original log cabins where the first homesteaders lived. I can not imagine living in a one bed room cabin in he best of times let alone when there was snow every where and no roads, and I am really glad that I don't have to eat homemade canned salmon because it looked awful. I finally got to see the coast and the cook inlet which is right next to Old Kenai where the first little town was. The Russian Orthodox church is in Old Kenai and it is a really interesting building with an even more interesting priest. He told us the story of every piece of art in the the little sanctuary; I think that during the summer he functions as both priest and tour guide. Every where we went people were so friendly and wanted to tell us everything about Alaska. One lady even gave us a 50 year old news paper to take back to the office because it had an article about the moose population. The news paper had a really funny article about a guy who fell off his roof, broke his arm and had to be flown into Anchorage "for repairs." We also went to see the old cannery which was the industry that Kenai was once centered around. The original port where they used to have a market place is still there and now it is full of interesting little shops that open in the summer to sell to the tourists which I think is kinda fitting.
Last night after our day trip, we were watching movies at the bunk house when Bertha the moose decided to eat dinner in our yard. Me and the other guys not from Alaska were really excited and all went outside to take pictures which the people from Alaska found silly. So far I have seen about 8 moose, but I still think it is cool that she came right up to the house.
Today was not as exciting. I have been fixing up all the old kid's fishing rods for our booth at the upcoming Kenai River fest which is tedious, but I guess fixing fishing rods is still a lot better than most other office work. Yesterday was great weather which was good since I was out sightseeing, and it has been raining today which is also good because the Salmon are not as numerous as they should be in some places. Apparently salmon like rain.
I have added all of my pictures from yesterday online at http://picasaweb.google.com/EmilyS52486/WelcomeToAlaska#

Its a little cold here

Well, I made it to Kenai with almost no trouble. One of my bags made it about four hours after I did, but the airline brought it to my house which was nice. After my long flight, my boss at the FWS picked me up at the airport and took me to the bunk house where I will be staying for the next year. The bunk house is actually a house that they rent for the interns, not a log cabin with a bunch of bunk beds. Currently there are five other people living with me, but they are all moving to field camps over the next couple of weeks. Thursday I got bear safety and gun safety training (don't worry, I won't be carrying a gun), and I got to go to the shooting range on Friday and shoot a shot gun for the first time. It was quite an experience. Once I found out that I was left eye dominant, I was actually a pretty good shot. I hit all three of my shots in the moving target right in the kill zone.

At work right now, I am getting ready for the Kenai River Festival; we are going to have a big tent set up with different stations to teach kids about fishing. It sounds like I am going to love my job. My main project once the school year starts is going to be going to local schools and leading the adopt a stream program. Pretty much I am going to get to play in the creek all day. All of the people who work there are very friendly.

I am really excited to get to see some of the Alaskan wildlife. So far, I have seen about 3 moose, a couple eagles, some ravens and a few other birds. I took a very long walk today around what are the cross country ski trails in the winter. It was a really long long walk, but it was nice to get out side. The weather has been kinda cold and wet (in the 40s and 50s), but the rain held off for me today. Apparently the weather had been great up until the day I got here, so I am hoping it will get nice again soon. It is all really different looking here than TN, but it has not set in yet that I am going to be here for a whole year. Right now the only thing on anybody's mind is fishing; I think one of the girls at work is going to take me out with her sometime soon. The first King salmon are making their way to the rivers so maybe I will land a big one!