A 24-hour, 245 mile survey of fireweed plants from Anchorage to Seldovia revealed an almost complete absence of flowering.

Is the abundance of insects unusual? Updates from around the state with picking and weather impacts.

"We usually pick salmon berries in early July."

"This season we have observed many salmonberry bushes that appear to be defoliated. It seems something is eating the leaves. We have also noticed the berries look sickly."

"I am concerned about high levels of PFAS contamination in the drinking water?"

The sockeye salmon are coming back smaller for the Newhalen River and Iliamna Lake, plus not a thick as they once did when I was younger.

While subsistence salmon fishing, community members from Port Heiden found a skate in the net, which is unusual for them.

The hind of the moose was also covered with flies.

This video shot on June 11th outside of Kotzebue shows red-necked phalaropes displaying circling behavior.

Water floods the Kotzebue lagoon. Grasses can be seen in July and a month later in August the water has risen 4-6 ft.

Out commercial fishing on the water in the inter Kotzebue Sound the weather was calm and there were miles and miles of a strange floating orange layer on the surface.

Discoloration of water in bay. Is this an algal bloom?

The marine mammal was seen some 600 miles from where the river empties into the Bering Sea.

The rain in July has been persistent and in some cases intense. At Cheney Lake there is plenty of evidence about the wet summer.

Over the last several weeks the algae bloom has ranged from significant covering the surface of the lake in many places to today seeing patches of the bloom here and there on the surface. It can also be observed below the surface near the shoreline.

Black oystercatchers have returned to Nanwalek, Alaska, and three eggs have been spotted on the beach.

This bird was a noticed on the beach landing area of the community but not touched.

Tribal member from St. Mary's, Alaska noticed this on her when she went back inside her home. Turns out it is an elm sawfly, Cimbex americana.

This post is an update on the river erosion situation in Noatak, where a new channel is being cut by the Noatak River.