An ice cream wrapper stuck into a bench. GPC/Flickr Kayla Desroches/KMXT When you look down at a sidewalk in an American metropolis – like New York City – you’re likely to see more of these objects than you would in Kodiak. Gum wrappers, napkins, soda cans, all of the garbage that falls out of pockets or is tossed out car …

Steller sea lions in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters/Flickr Kayla Desroches/KMXT Community members have been reporting sightings of a Steller sea lion with a rope constricting its neck. It appears to have gotten entangled in marine debris. Bree Witteveen, a mammal specialist with the Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center, says they’ve been …

Spinach. Jasmine&Roses/Flickr Kayla Desroches/KMXT You don’t have to wait until summer to buy goods at a Kodiak farmer’s market. You just need to drop by Sutliff True Value downtown tonight. Or their parking lot, anyway. Merissa Koller Williams, executive director of the community wellness group, Healthy Tomorrows, says a farmer’s market tonight is one community initiative which received funding last …

Colored pencils, some tools of the trade when it comes to sketching. Richard Steih/Flickr Kayla Desroches/KMXT Sometimes, all it takes to capture a scene are a few lines and a splash of color. A series of free art classes at the Kodiak Public Library will teach students how to document the world through sketching. Kodiak resident Bob Ross will lead …

On today’s Talk of the Rock, host Kayla Desroches speaks with organizers of the annual community cleanup event, which takes place the first Saturday of every May. You can find out more about the event through the Chamber of Commerce website or its Facebook page.

Geologist Kristi Wallace stands beside particulate monitor. Kayla Desroches/KMXT Kayla Desroches/KMXT Researchers are trying to determine whether strong winds blowing over the Valley of 10,000 Smokes on the Alaska Peninsula can transport dangerous amounts of ash into the Kodiak environment. To help them collect data, they’ll turn to a pair of particulate monitors they set up last week – one …

Karl Short. Courtesy of the Kodiak Island Borough Kayla Desroches/KMXT A Kodiak Island Borough employee is trading a life of finance for a life of leisure and fishing. Borough Finance Director Karl Short says Friday was his last day of work and the conclusion to 33 years of borough employment. Short says he joined the borough in 1983 as a …

Workshop participants sort roe according to grade, looking for tears and other flaws. Kayla Desroches/KMXT Kayla Desroches/KMXT A workshop about roe, or fish eggs, last week covered everything from the market for roe to how to judge its quality. Almost 30 students took the course Thursday and Friday at the Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center. Chris Bledsoe slaps a …

Tanner Purdy. Kayla Desroches/KMXT Kayla Desroches/KMXT Children consume stories through books, their classrooms, and each other – now they’ll tell their own stories on a stage. A youth story slam tonight takes after storytelling events like Galley Tables and gives students a chance to share their memories and experiences. Ninth grader Tanner Purdy is one of the students to stand …

The inverted wall obstacle at Challenge the Rock. Photo by Lauren Humphrey Kayla Desroches/KMXT An upcoming 5k and obstacle course will challenge community members to be upstanders instead of bystanders. Those of the words of one organizer, Lauren Humphreys, from the Kodiak Women’s Resource and Crisis Center, who says the event is in observation of National Child Abuse Prevention Month …