On a glorious, sunny day in late June, a small team of entomologists convened at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge to do what entomologists do best: collect insects.

They had come to take part in a rapid ecological assessment of arthropod biodiversity, where we collect as many species as possible in a short time. 

They clog our intersections with Hertz rental cars when we're late for work. They plug grocery lines when all granny needs is a gallon of Lucerne. And they march to the boat launch clad in XTRATUF boots - sans mud and salmon guts, as if they scribed the "Great Book of Alaska Faux Pas.'"

But most tourists - the same ones who give the local economy a shot in the rump each summer - come to the central Kenai Peninsula with good intentions.

It seems a little early to be worrying about winter browse for moose on the Kenai Peninsula, but recent sightings of bare willow and alder stands are raising the eye brows of biologists at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. Large areas of subalpine willow show up as brown patches from the air on the Tustumena Benchlands (see photo). Closer to home, thinleaf alder (Alnus tenuifolia) has been defoliated along the road system from Kasilof to Moose Pass.

Time is running short to catch a Kenai River king salmon because the season ends at 11:59 p.m. Sunday. But fishing is picking up for a slew of other species.

Sockeye salmon are being caught in good numbers from the mouth of the Kenai all the way up to the Russian River, rainbow trout are plentiful in stretches of the river and reports of silver salmon are beginning to surface.

“It’s a fun time of the year,” said Scott Miller of Trustworthy Hardware in Soldotna. “We’ve got a long way to go yet, and people for the most part are pretty happy.”