Going the Distance Part 3: Teaching an Extension Course Using a Combination of Distance-Delivery Methods

Extension could rely more on distance education to expand its outreach with deflating budgets. In Alaska, where people are few and far between and even inaccessible by road, opportunities for distance-delivered outreach are particularly significant. In this article, we explore the efficacy of a mixed-method teaching approach that combined three distance-delivery methods: Elive, Blackboard, and teleconference. We share course impacts, completion rates, and satisfaction. We surmise that providing more than one way for students to participate in a distance course increases student satisfaction

The Nexus Between Environmental Stress, Resource Governance and Demographic Change in Norton Sound, Alaska

The decision to migrate is a complex and multi-faceted one. In Northern Alaska, environmental changes are occurring at an unprecedented rate, resulting in forms of stress that generate a hard decision for residents of dozens of Alaska Native communities: whether to leave home, or remain in place and cope with the changes that come. In my thesis, I explore the connections between environmental change and demographic change in Norton Sound, Alaska. Specifically, I consider how fisheries disruptions impact rural commercial fishers, using a mixed methods approach. Employing the Attachment, Alternatives, Buffering framework to analyze my data, I identify many socio-economic and environmental factors that influence how individual resource users experience and respond to sources of environmental stress. My analysis provides a better understanding of how demographic change – or the lack thereof – in rural, environmentally-threatened communities is highly influenced by resource governance and management structures, such as the Western Alaska Community Development Quota program. By better understanding these interconnections, my research demonstrates how resource governance structures can promote adaptability in rural, predominantly-Indigenous communities. My results indicate that individuals did not leave imperilled locations as a result of resource disruption, though some households are leaving now. I also found that certain resource governance structures such as the CDQ program, are influencing adaptive capacity within at-risk communities and in some cases, may actually be working produce more just and locally-appropriate adaptations to environmental stressors

Staying in place during times of change in Arctic Alaska: The implications of attachment,alternatives, and buffering

The relationship between stability and change in social-ecological systems has received considerable attention in recent years, including the expectation that significant environmental changes will drive observable consequences for individuals, communities, and populations. Migration, as one example of response to adverse economic or environmental changes, has been observed in many places, including parts of the Far North. In Arctic Alaska, a relative lack of demographic or migratory response to rapid environmental and other changes has been observed. To understand why Arctic Alaska appears different, we draw on the literature on environmentally driven migration, focusing on three mechanisms that could account for the lack of response: attachment, the desire to remain in place, or the inability to relocate successfully; alternatives, ways to achieve similar outcomes through different means; and buffering, the reliance on subsidies or use of reserves to delay impacts. Each explanation has different implications for research and policy, indicating a need to further explore the relative contribution that each makes to a given situation in order to develop more effective responses locally and regionally. Given that the Arctic is on the front lines of climate change, these explanations are likely relevant to the ways changes play out in other parts of the world. Our review also underscores the importance of further attention to the details of social dynamics in climate change impacts and responses

The Permafrost-Agroecosystem Action Group: first results and future goals

Permafrost-agroecosystems encompass northern social-ecological systems which include both cultivation of arable permafrost-affected soils, and animal husbandry practices. These heterogeneous food and cultural systems are being affected by a warming climate. Examples include increasing opportunities for growing crops through longer growing seasons, as well as impacts on animals’ local and long-distance migratory movements and their food sources. Furthermore, climate change driven permafrost thaw and thaw accelerated by land clearance is rapidly changing the biophysical and socioeconomic aspects of these systems. Therefore, an international collaboration encompassing experts from North America, Europe and Asia is working on increasing our understanding of permafrost-agroecosystems and contributing to the adaptation, resilience, and sustainability strategy of these rapidly evolving systems. The International Permafrost Association Permafrost-Agroecosystem Action Group is composed of ~30 members from 7 countries. The objectives of our action group are to share knowledge and build networking capacities through meetings and webinar presentation as well as to collaborate on publications and produce the first geospatial dataset of permafrost-agroecosystems. Our poster presentation provides an overview of the group’s activities including providing case studies from a range of high-latitude and high-altitude areas as part of a group manuscript in preparation and an update on our mapping activities