These ladies found a snail that they had never seen before and brought them.
Observation: On Tuesday, a couple people were out picking high bush cranberries and blueberries in a swamp in the Barabara Heights subdivision approximately 5 miles outside of Seldovia City limits. These ladies found a snail that they had never seen before and brought them into the Environmental staff at Seldovia Village Tribe (SVT). A few photos and a couple videos were taken of the snails and sent to many different people including staff at UAA, KBRR, NPS, BIA, Cook Inlet keeper, and KAI Environmental. After many e-mails, someone came up with the best guess that they were amber snails which are common on the Kenai Peninsula. I (Michael Opheim) have lived here in Seldovia for 40 years and this is the first time I have seen or heard of them. We are putting together a wanted poster to see if other people in the community have ever seen these snails before. We are also going to put out maybe one of the short video clips so people can see the snails a bit better than the photos. Not knowing what these snails are or if they will do harm to the vegetation they were found in is rather important because people rely on this swamp for their high bush cranberries and blue berries. Also hoping maybe there is more information out there on these snails. Michael Opheim
Cooperative Extension Service Consult: This post has been forwarded to our colleague Jessie Moan at the UAF Cooperative Extension Service for assistance in identification and to understand any important impacts with this species.
