S earch for the S lippery S almon W in $100 i n
Rules on page 19
September 2025
Wednesdays, 6pm at Kenai River Brewing Co.
Wednesdays, 6pm at Kenai River Brewing Co.
SEPT 24 SEPT 24 - NOV 12 - NOV 12 th th th th
Free to attend Free to attend
Complimentary raffle ENTRY Complimentary raffle ENTRY
KWF members FIRST drink IS on us
KWF members FIRST drink IS on us
THE FUTURE OF THE KINGS IS IN OUR HANDS
Kenai King Salmon are in crisis. This forum is open to all community members—guides, fishermen, businesses, families, and anyone who cares about the future of the kings. Together, we’ll listen, discuss, and begin shaping solutions that reflect the values of our community.
October 25, 2025 9:00AM - 2:00PM Soldotna Prep School
The war within the aspen leaves
Ned Rozell
On one of the friendliest platforms imaginable, a ferocious battle rages.
While mowing its way through the surface of a trembling leaf, an aspen leaf miner meets one of its kind. Instead of offering a nuzzle of recognition, the tiny caterpillar tears into the other with its sickle-like mouthparts, while trying to avoid a fatal gash from the other.
Diane Wagner, Pat Doak and students who work with them are among the few humans who have seen this war within the aspen leaves. They think the fierce, silent conflict has probably benefited both the insect population and a tree that’s been under siege in Interior Alaska for a long time.
Leaf miners are moth larvae that stencil the surfaces of aspen leaves with their transparent tracks. After infestation, the leaves appear silvery from a distance.
Interior aspen trees have shimmered with these pale leaves in late summers since at least 2003, when Wagner and Doak, both researchers with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Arctic Biology, first began studying them.
Driven by their curiosity, the biologists have become world experts on the handsome white moths smaller than a grain of rice, and the even smaller yellow caterpillars that hatch within aspen leaves.
“Aspen’s a weedy species,” Wagner said.
“There’s no industry use of aspen pulp in Alaska. For us, the outbreak is purely a vehicle to study ecology, evolution and natural history.”
In their detailed look at the aspen leaf miner moth and larvae during the past few decades, Wagner and Doak have found that the creature has not wiped out stands of Interior Alaska aspens, a possible outcome scientists wondered about early in the outbreak.
“There’s no question they cause important tree- and stand-level effects, like less CO2 uptake and lower growth rates,” Wagner said.
“But they haven’t killed many outright.”
Over the years, the researchers have found
out many things about the little white moths and their offspring. The larvae within the leaves emerge in mid-July as white moths. They overwinter beneath spruce trees and can survive temperatures colder than 25 below zero Fahrenheit.
When the moths emerge in springtime, they mate and lay eggs on upper and lower surfaces of aspen leaves.
When those eggs hatch and the caterpillar tracks meet, sparks fly. The scientists discovered this when looking at leaves under a microscope.
“They fight!” Wagner said. “Sometimes, both die in the end.”
Each aspen leaf ’s top and bottom surface can support only one or two caterpillars, but leaves often hold many more eggs in springtime. This self-regulation through mortal combat could benefit both the tree and the insect.
“They kill each other so effectively that on average the leaf damage is only about 65 percent; that preserves some leaf tissue that can function normally,” Wagner said. “That also probably helps the outbreak to continue.
“If the leaf miners didn’t kill one another, during a high-density year they could consume all the leaf tissue available,” Wagner continued. “And they’d still all starve.”
During this 20-year plus journey of studying
a tiny organism that surrounds everyone who has lived in or visited Interior Alaska, Wagner and her colleagues have looked at everything from leaf genetics to the physiology of both aspens and a specialist that defaces their solar panels.
“It’s such a rich system,” Wagner said. “I’m a generalist, so I like to ask lots of different questions. It’s been really fun.”
This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community. Ned Rozell is a science writer at the institute.
Photo by Pat Doak.
The moth stage of an aspen leaf miner lays eggs on an aspen leaf bud in springtime.
Photo by Ned Rozell. The caterpillar stage of the aspen leaf miner feeds on a leaf.
Dine & Discuss is a community education program that provides important health care information from local medical experts.
JOIN US FOR A DELICIOUS DINNER AND GREAT HEALTH CARE DISCUSSION
Michelle E. Moyer, DO Presents: Exploring New Options for Treatment-Resistant Depression
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a gentle, drug-free therapy that uses magnetic pulses to improve mood with minimal side effects. Though it requires several weeks of sessions, many people experience lasting results.
Spravato® is a nasal spray that can bring quicker relief under clinical supervision, especially when symptoms are severe. Sometimes, doctors combine both treatments—Spravato for rapid improvement and TMS for longer-term benefits.
Michelle E. Moyer, DO, MSW Central Peninsula Mental Wellness
Dr. Michelle Moyer, DO, MSW, is a psychiatrist specializing in treatment-resistant depression, offering innovative therapies such as TMS and Spravato. Passionate about compassionate care, she brings extensive expertise to the Kenai Peninsula, where she and her family enjoy Alaska’s outdoors and close-knit community life.
DATE: Thursday, September 18th
TIME: 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
LOCATION: CPH Mountain Tower Denali Room
Downstairs from the main entrance
COST: $15 per person for dinner dinner (Free without dinner)
HOW: Must pre-register at cpgh.org/discuss/ by September 15, 2025
Questions? tvick@cpgh.org 907-714-4665
250 Hospital Place, Soldotna, AK 99669 | www.cpgh.org 907-714-4404
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FALL IS HERE WORD SEARCH
Find the words hidden vertically, horizontally, diagonally, and backwards.
SUDOKU
(Level - Easy)
The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 boxes (also called blocks or regions) contains the digits from 1 to 9 only one time each.
CROSSWORD
SUDOKU ANSWER
ACROSS
1. Native American people of CA
5. Long periods of time (Brit.)
10. Classroom tool
12. Rods
14. One who renews
16. They start the alphabet
18. Periodical (slang)
19. Smooth singer Cole
20. Dorsal sclerites in insects
22. One from Utah
23. The world of the dead
25. Singer Redding
26. Mafia head
27. Wrongly
28. Unhappy
30. Anger
31. Dark olive black
33. Places to sit and eat
35. Made a mistake
37. Damp
CROSSWORD ANSWER
38. Banned fuel type
40. Actor Damon
41. What thespians do
42. A polite address for a woman
44. Disallow
45. Swiss river
48. A banana has one
50. Afrikaans
52. Relative biological effectiveness (abbr.)
53. Agave
55. Journalist Tarbell
56. One-time tech leader
57. Incidentally (abbr.)
58. Intestinal bacterium
63. Loose sheats around the spinal cord
65. Accompanies nook
66. Vogue
67. Highly excited
DOWN
1. Witch
2. Utilize
3. Writing utensil
4. Where rockers work
5. Becomes less intense
6. Consume
7. Type of catfish
8. “Horsetown, U.S.A.”
9. Atomic #50
10. The Muse of lyric poetry
11. Brings back to life
13. Humorous critiques
15. Cool!
17. Worst
18. Wet dirt
21. Useful
23. Hebrew unit of liquid capacity
24. High schoolers’ test 27. Internet device
29. City in India
32. A place to rest 34. Chat responder
35. A way to move on
36. What consumers are given
39. Digital audiotape
40. More (Spanish)
43. Disfigured
44. White (Spanish)
46. Church building
47. Georgia rockers
49. Surgeon’s tool
51. “Much __ about nothing”
54. Make by braiding 59. Local area network 60. Unit of work 61. Indigenous person of Thailand 62. Liquefied natural gas 64. Distance to top
Ages 4-6
Kyron Hulslander
Age 5
Ages 10-12
Hessed Martinez
Age 10
Ages 7-9
Ryssa Curtiss Age 7
Winners will receive a GIFT CARD from
Thank you to everyone who entered! Be sure to color your entry for September!
