"The spruce bark beetle epidemic currently ravaging Southcentral AK's spruce trees is well-known, but I haven't heard mention of other pests occurring in conjunction."

Elodea was discovered in Alexander Lake in 2014 by researchers checking minnow traps. At the time, it covered 20 percent of the lake but now has spread to 90 percent.

The forest on the East side of Cheney Lake is changing and the biggest change is the proliferation of May Day trees.

The worst-hit areas appear to be established neighborhoods with older spruce trees, especially in Turnagain and Spenard.

The closures of the campgrounds, facing the threat of falling trees, likely will last through summer, the state parks division said.

Warmer than normal temperatures in Anchorage may be causing willows (genus Salix) to bud early.

The latest tally of beetle kill shows more than 550,000 acres of forest with dead spruce from the ongoing infestation this year alone, much of it in Mat-Su.

Discolored spruce (Picea sitchensis) needles

"They are extremely fresh-looking, as if it were the springtime."

Dead, red trees signal an increasingly dire outbreak driven by warm summers and plentiful spruce, especially in the Susitna Valley.

We have over two weeks of cold windy weather. It started in mid April around the time of the big wind storm. And in relation of the wind storm on April 24th, Rick Thoman wrote: "Winds this strong in the Anchorage are rare at this time of year. An unusually strong storm for the season in the southeastern Bering Sea produced southeast strong winds blowing across the Chugach Mountains. However, being April, the temperature profile of the atmosphere close to the ground was more conducive than in winter for allowing the very strong winds aloft to reach down to the ground.

Two moose calves found dead outside separate Anchorage homes on Friday are believed to have died from eating poisonous ornamental plants.

Elodea, a fast-growing leafy plant, is now in a roadside ditch at the marsh, and a response plan is in the works.

During the 2012 wind storm, many of the poplars lost branches or their tops. Now leave the leaves are growing back as big as pie plates.

Since the 2012 wind storm, the forest in Cheney Lake Park has been rapidly transforming from native cottonwoods to a variety of exotic ornamental trees.

This is the second year we have noticed that the spruce tips are very long, in fact longer than I have ever seen.

Abundant berry harvest this year in southcentral Alaska

Disease thought to be caused by mold or an infestation of aphids observed on Bird Ridge along the Seward Highway.

Tall Fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium)

Raspberries (Rubus idaeus) are Ripe