Homer Mayor Rachel Lord declared a local emergency after water and debris washed over the Homer Spit last weekend, damaging parts of the road and forcing closures.

Homer Spit Road sustained damage from high tides and winds, prompting short-term repairs and highlighting the need for long-term erosion control measures.

A new plant species is establishing itself in the area and impacting native beach greens.

No obvious cause of death for this adult and juvenile otter.

Two harbor seal pups, one from Naknek and another from Wrangell, were recently rescued and are receiving care at the Alaska SeaLife Center due to malnourishment and other health issues.

"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."

"We usually pick salmon berries in early July."

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

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

Kenai National Wildlife Refuge staff say the bird is leucistic, lacking pigment in some feathers due to an absence of cells that produce melanin.

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

It turns out that Grubby the opossum — who hitched a ride to Alaska in a shipping container in March — had babies.

A culvert collapse closed the road at Mile 8 from 9 p.m. Friday until one lane reopened at 10 a.m. Sunday. The culvert was washed out by heavy snowmelt.

Just over a year ago, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game applied the pesticide rotenone to two lakes and a stream in the remote Miller Creek drainage on the northern Kenai Peninsula to eradicate the last known population of invasive northern pike on the Kenai Peninsula.

Two dead otters (one recent) on Kasitsna Bay side. We also found another one yesterday on the Kachemak side.

Walked two miles of spit and did not see any others.

A resident of Seldovia reported an infestation of worms infesting an area of salmonberry brush and nettle.

Carmichael pointed to a tree that fell across one of the riverside campground spots, taking out a fence. There’s another on the opposite side of the path, branches strewn across an open patch of snow. They’re among the 1,000 high-priority trees the city wants to remove due to safety concerns.

An approximate 69% of adult razor clams at Ninilchik beaches and 84% at Clam Gulch beaches have died. The department said the cause of the high natural mortality rate of the clams remains unknown, but may be due to a combination of heavy surf, habitat changes, environmental stressor and predation.

It's cold. And those frigid temperatures aren't going away anytime soon. The cold has set in across most of Alaska and set daily record lows in places like Homer, King Salmon and Bethel. It's relatively early to be seeing such cold.