Walk and Roll Contest Kicks Off Next Week

[listen here]
Brianna Gibbs/KMXT
October is national Walk to School Month and next week some Kodiak schools will celebrate this by competing in the annual Walk and Roll contest. The two week competition encourages students to walk or bike to school, when it is safe to do so, and provides prize incentives.
Tom Pogson is the local Safe Routes to School coordinator through Island Trails Network and has worked with the districts wellness coordinator, Gloria Scalzo, to help put on the program.
“And in an ideal world, if we didn’t have all the barriers to safe walking and biking, we would want all the kids that live close enough to school to walk and bike safely to school.”   

ITN Staff, Volunteers Take to Tugidak

[listen here]
Brianna Gibbs/KMXT
Clean up on the archipelago’s remote Tugidak Island is now underway. This is the second and final year of Kodiak Island Trails Network’s project to remove marine debris from the island, which is southwest of the southern tip of Kodiak Island.
Tom Pogson is the director of marine programs for Island Trails Network, or ITN, and has been on Tugidak for about two weeks now. He contacted KMXT via satellite phone and said so far this year’s clean up is going well.
“We decided that there was enough debris in the area that we cleaned last year and we re-cleaned that area in almost less than half the time and we’re now I think starting the second day of clean up into the new area.”
Last year ITN collected 130 super sacks worth of marine debris on Tugidak and Pogson said this summer they already have 65 bags after only seven days of clean up. The crew spent the first week on the island setting up camp and making sure everything was in working order, and last week volunteers and members of the Kodiak Wildlife Refuge’s Youth Conservation Corps made the trip south to participate in the first wave of debris removal.
Pogson said the weather so far has been incredible, with only two days of rain in the past two weeks. On Friday a new group of volunteers left for the island, where Pogson said they’ll face a few different habitats and terrains that need cleaning.

ITN Calls on Kodiak to Clean Up Beaches

[listen here]
Brianna Gibbs/KMXT
The second annual Kodiak Coast Walk is set for this weekend. The event, sponsored by Kodiak Island Trails Network, or ITN, provides bags to folks wanting to clean up some of the island’s 81 beaches along the road system. Items are then delivered to ITN, who will sort and store the marine debris, which isn’t accepted at the landfill.
To get an understanding of what kind of debris folks will be picking up on beaches this weekend, KMXT sent reporter Brianna Gibbs to clean up the Buskin Beach with ITN’s Director of Marine Programs, Tom Pogson.
The two spent less than 30 minutes cleaning 40 feet of beach at the Buskin River earlier this week, which resulted in roughly 35 pounds of debris. It was a small glimpse of what’s out there on Kodiak’s beaches, and folks can help with clean up efforts during the second annual Coast Walk this weekend.
People can pick up bags between 8 a.m. and noon in the parking lot of the Little School of Dance on Saturday and Sunday. There they can also look at a map of Kodiak beaches and sign up for where they’d like to go, that way there isn’t any overlap. Then, between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. full bags can be dropped off at Pier II in the fenced area north of the Horizon office.
There will also be a Coast Walk kickoff barbecue at the Fort Abercrombie State Park group shelter on Friday from 5:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. It is a potluck, so bring a dish to share. Bags and maps will be provided there.

Round Two For Tugidak Clean Ups

[listen here]
Brianna Gibbs/KMXT
This summer will be the second and final summer of the NOAA-funded Tugidak community marine debris clean up program.
“It’s on Tugidak Island, a really beautiful and super exciting place to spend time.”
That’s Tom Pogson, the director of marine programs at Kodiak Island Trails Network. Pogson spent a sizeable portion of his summer on Tugidak Island last year, where he helped facilitate the hardworking volunteers that ITN flew to the island to clean the beaches. Tugidak is a part of the Trinity Island Group, south of Kodiak.
Pogson said NOAA funded two years worth of removal and kicked off the program last year.
“And this year we’re going to concentrate on the tidal zone and the near shore environment. And the goal is to clean as much of the beach as we can without going too far inland, because going inland causes a lot of disturbance and it’s difficult to remove the debris. We’re focusing on plastics, foam and things that are really nasty for the environment. Not so much on metal and aluminum – which is relatively inert.”
Pogson said ITN crews and volunteers will head to the island around July 8, and wrap up their work by August 17. He said the organization is currently looking for volunteers to commit to one or two weeks during that time frame.
Last year a total of 13 volunteers and 6 staff members spent a combined 37 days on the island and filled 130 super sacs with debris – or roughly 33,000 pounds. Pogson said that was collected from 4.5 miles of coastline.
To put the density of debris on Tugidak in perspective, Pogson said 80,000 pounds were cleaned up by ITN from 50 miles of coastline on Afognak Island.
“There’s at least three times as much debris down on Tugidak as there is up on Afognak and there’s a lot of debris on Afognak.”
He said this will be the organization’s last season on Tugidak, pending future grants to help fund further efforts.
The full Tugidak schedule is on ITN’s website.

Bike Clinic Will Educate Local Riders

[listen here]
Brianna Gibbs/KMXT
As the temperature hopefully starts warming up in the next few weeks, some folks might take to Kodiak’s roads on two wheels, rather than four. For those looking to get some biking in this year, be it recreationally, or simply to get from point A to point B, there will be a community bike clinic on Saturday at Bayside Fire Station.
Sandra West is a certified bike instructor from the League of American Bicyclists and said Saturday’s workshop will help the island’s cycling enthusiasts in all matters of the sport.
“Choosing a bike, fitting a bike to you, so that you are more comfortable riding your bike. We’re going to go over some basics mechanics and maintenance. We’re going to talk about how to change a tire, which is the most common maintenance need.”
The clinic will also provide tips and tricks for handling bikes on different terrain, including roads with lots of pot holes – something we here in Kodiak are all too familiar with.
“These little tricks probably mountain bikers know, but more than half of all bicycle crashes are due to pot holes or hazards on the road and these handling techniques are really cool for avoiding hazards on the road. Very helpful.”
The clinic will also cover traffic rules for bikers, including how to change lanes on the road and make themselves more visible to vehicles.
Tom Pogson is also a certified bike instructor and said the event costs $20 and will run from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.
“It’s a fabulous amount of knowledge and it’s exciting and fun and there’s some really cool maneuvers to do out in the parking lot and just some things that you never imagined you could do on a bike that are pretty easy if you know the right techniques.”
The same course costs $50 in Anchorage, and West joked that folks are getting the Kodiak discount by participating on Saturday. People will need to bring their own bike, lunch, water, rain gear and a notepad if they’d like.
A similar workshop will be held for kids 14-years-old and younger on May 31 in conjunction with the Bike Rodeo. West said those who participate on Saturday and then help out with the rodeo next month will get their $20 fee reimbursed.

ITN to Present at Alaska Forum on the Environment

[listen here]
Brianna Gibbs/KMXT
The Alaska Forum on the Environment is coming up in February and will feature presenters from all over the state, including Kodiak. Tom Pogson is the director of marine programs and outreach for the Kodiak Island Trails Network and will be presenting at this year’s forum. He said the meetings typically draw more than 4,000 people and focus on topics ranging from toxicology to marine debris.
ITN spent a lot of time collecting and monitoring marine debris last year, so it’s no surprise that it will be the focus of Pogson’s presentation at the conference.
“We did four different marine debris projects last year with funding from the Alaska Marine Stewardship Foundation through the state of Alaska. The legislative appropriation for Japanese tsunami debris clean up and also we did the first year of a two year community marine debris removal from Tugidak Island. And those were four very busy projects.”
Pogson said ITN collected more than 65 tons of marine debris in 2013, which was more than any other year combined. While that amount is certainly impressive, it came at a time when dealing with the debris is increasingly more difficult for the organization.