Special Issue: Food Sustainability, the Food System, and Alaskans

[Geography] -- The Alaska Food Policy Council: Everyone knows that food is important, but our dependence upon Outside for the stuff of life has finally begun to seem, well, just a little discomfiting to Alaska's policymakers. Once again, Alaskans are searching for a way to feed themselves. / Deirdre Helfferich -- Supermarkets in Fairbanks: Food must be affordable as well as accessible for a community to achieve food security. How well does Fairbanks, Alaska's second-largest city, stack up in this regard? / Alison Meadow -- [High-Latitude Agriculture] -- Homegrown Alaska: Farmer Profiles Open the Eyes of the Interior to the Scope of Local Agriculture: The scope of food grown by Interior farmers is staggering, and the breadth and variety of the farmers' characters is equally impressive. From Bethel to North Pole to Manley Hot Springs, there's more growing here than most people realize. / Nancy Tarnai -- Assessing Food security in Fairbanks, Alaska: There's a lot of farmers in the Interior, but finding out what they grow, what they need, and where they sell their agricultural products can by tricky. This senior thesis project answers several questions about agriculture in the Tanana Valley and points the way to determining how best to improve food security in the Fairbanks area. /Charles Caster -- Recovering from an aberration: The Future of Alaska's Livestock: Livestock is an integral part of agriculture, and this is true in Alaska as anywhere else: animals are raised for meat, milk, fiber, transportation, labor, and companionship. Or is there a difference in the Last Frontier? / Deirdre Helfferich -- Greenhouse: a place to grow: When the forty-year-old Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station greenhouse on the West Ridge of the UAF campus was dismantled, it was only a matter of months before a brand-new teaching and research greenhouse was constructed. / Nancy Tarnai and Deirdre Helfferich -- ARS shuts the door on Alaska research: Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack approved the closure of twelve Agricultural Research Service stations, including the ARS in Alaska, and despite a plea from US Senator Mark Begich. When the Sub-Arctic Research Unit and its gene bank close, the door will shut on a long history of research that won't be easily picked up by anyone else. / Nancy Tarnai -- [Events, People, & Places] Food -- Food Day begins with a bang: The first national Food Day celebration was inaugurated in 2011, and UAF was right there with an Iron Chef Surf vs. Turf Cookoff Challenge, Food Jeopardy, films, displays, and a delicious free all-local buffet. / Nancy Tarnai -- Buzz Klebesadel: An Alaskan author, scientist, and agricultural leader has passed on. -- [Natural Resources] -- Fisheries and food security in Alaska: Any discussion of food security in Alaska is incomplete without at least some attention to the current and potential role of fisheries. For thousands of years, coastal and living marine resources have provided a keystone for the cultural, economic, and environmental health and wellbeing of Alaska's people and communities. / Philip A. Loring and Hannah L. Harrison -- Seed libraries: Seed-Sharing on a Community Level: While many people are familiar with the concept of a seed bank, not so many are acquainted with the idea of a seed library. Now this new kind of lending institution has come to Alaska. / Deirdre Helfferich -- A guide to bumblebees of the Interior: A Taxonomic Key and Notes on BOMBUS Species: Bumblebees are important pollinators, and can even be more efficient than honeybees at crop pollination. Their tongues are longer, they can buzz pollinate, and there are lots of them in Alaska. With the recent die-offs of honeybees due to Colony Collapse Disorder, scientists are looking at native bees and other pollinators. / Rehanon Pampell, Alberto Pantoga, Derek S. Sikes, Patricia Holloway, and Charles Knight

Alaska's Food (In)Security, Climate Change and the Boreal Forest, Biomass and Hydrocarbons

[Geography] -- AMSA: the future of arctic marine shipping: With more shipping traffic in the north and greater marine access due to the retreat of Arctic sea ice, the Arctic states needed to develop a strategy to protect the maritime Arctic, its people, and the environment -- [Forest Sciences] -- Changing the forest and the trees - Is it climate?: Sunspots, sun cycles, El Ninos, La Ninas, atmospheric oscillations, greenhouse gases: climate change has begun to affect the boreal more than any other forest region. / Glenn Patrick Juday -- One Tree in the Tanana Valley: Take one entire tree, and make everything you can out of it-including science and art education. / Nancy Tarnai -- Forest Dynamics & Management: This program monitors the growth and change in Alaska's forests, looking at forest health, characteristics, and regeneration. / Jingjing Liang and Tom Maline -- [High-Latitude Agriculture] -- Alaska's food (in)security: Alaskans have become aware that their food security is precarious - and they're doing something about it. / Deirdre Helfferich and Nancy Tarnai -- Leafhoppers: In Alaska, potato production accounts for 14 percent of total agricultural crop revenues, but the insect pests that can affect them are poorly understood. / Alberto Pantoja, Aaron M. Hagerty, Susan Y. Emmert, and Joseph E. Munyaneza -- You are my Sunshine!: The author took up the challenge: to make a beer brewed with Sunshine Hulless Barley, developed by AFES and released in 2009. / Anita Hartmann -- Reindeer market project makes history: For the first time, reindeer are 4-H project livestock. / George Aguiar -- Security of the red meat supply: Red meat for Alaskans, like other aspects of the food supply in the northernmost state, is dependent upon Outside sources. / Thomas F. Paragi, S. Craig Gerlach, and Alison M. Meadow -- [Natural Resources] -- Salmon and alder: Gasification of Low-Value Biomass in Alaska: Converting Alaska-specific biomass into a volatile hydrocarbon mixture could offset fuel use in remote locations. / Shawn Freitas, Andres Soria, and Cindy Bower -- Unlocking hydrocarbons from biomass: In the world of renewable energy, biomass is the sole source capable of producing hydrocarbons, the raw material needed for fuel, plastics, and the variety of products that maintain the economy. / Andres Soria -- Carex spectabilis: A Sedge for Landscaping and Revegetation in Alaska: Establishing groundcover on barren ground can be a challenge in Alaska; an indigenous sedge may provide a solution. / Jay D. McKendrick -- [People] -- Horace Drury: In Momoriam: This former director of the Alaska Agricultural & Forestry Experiment Station faced the challenge of 'new problems in a new land'. / Nancy Tarnai -- [News & Publications

Energy Independence for Alaska Villages, Log Cabin-Building Workshop, Geyser Protection Areas

Geography -- Counting on tradition: Math in a Cultural Context Adds Up: This award-winning educational program provides resources for teachers in math, geography, social studies, and other curricula, using Yup'ik concepts. / Nancy Tarnai -- Forest Sciences -- Log cabin building workshop: From Hangar to Woods: A hands-on workshop using local material resulted in a recreational cabin for the Sitka Ranger District. / Valerie Barber -- High-Latitude Agriculture -- The Midnight Sun-flower: Selection for early maturity in a sunwheat cultivar began sixteen years ago, resulting in a new but unofficial variety. / Bob Van Veldhuizen -- Natural Resources -- Biomass fuels: Local Energy, Local Jobs, and Community Resilience: Affordable, sustainable sources of heating fuel may be within walking distance of interior Alaska's rural communities. / Nancy Fresco and F. Stuart Chapin III -- How to save Old Faithful: Geyser Protection Areas: Geothermal power generation holds great promise as an alternative energy source, but unless it is managed carefully, another important natural resource will go extinct: the world's geyser basins. / Kenneth Barrick -- Two for the Peace Corps: The Peace Corps masters international program at SNRAS is seeing its first returnee from two years of corps work and graduate coursework, and its second entrant into the corps. / Nancy Tarnai -- Events, People, & Places -- The IPY at UAF: The 4th International Polar Year has drawn on a long history of global scientific cooperation. UAF and SNRAS scientists are at the forefront of work on global change. / Nancy Tarnai and the IPY International Programme Office -- A sustainable PhD -- Kerttula Hall dedication -- James Drew: piloting agriculture -- Leslie A. Viereck: infectious curiosity -- News & Publication

Agroborealis, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Summer 2004)

Downloaded from www.uaf.edu/snras April 16, 2013.Reindeer Inspire New Teaching Guide: A new curriculum and teaching kit produced by the Reindeer Research Program brings history, biology, electronics, cultural studies, and more into classrooms / Doreen L. Fitzgerald -- Susan Willsrud & Calypso Farm: A graduate of SNRAS, Susan Willsrud returned to Alaska with her husband to found a small community supported agriculture center. The farm and ecology center are devoted to teaching principles of organic gardening, soil care, and the value of fresh, locally grown food. / Deirdre Helfferich -- The Wildlife Viewing Challenge: Watching wild animals is an increasingly popular recreational activity for which public land managers must plan / Doreen Fitzgerald with Peter Fox -- Taxonomy and Evolution of Alaska Birches: In the quest for useful chemicals from plants, knowing which tree is which could be vital. The author explains taxonomic terminology and looks at birch species in Alaska. / Edmond C. Packee -- Birch Use in the Former Soviet Republics: In the vast region of the former Soviet Union, every part of the birch tree has a use. The author, a Russian, describes the traditional cultural and medicinal uses of the sap, bark, leaves, buds, twigs, and wood of birches in the East. / Andriy Boyar -- Heavenly Garden, Earthly Pursuits: The Georgeson Botanical Garden is developing a children's garden and a new picnic pavilion, with help from the community. / Doreen Fitzgeral

Agroborealis, Vol. 39, No. 1 (Summer 2007)

Forage & turf: the career of G. Allen Mitchell: Allen Mitchell's 36-year career has been devoted to finding better forage for animals, plants for revegetation, and good tough turfgrasses capable of withstanding Alaska's harsh winters-it's nice to have a good green for one's northern golf game. / Doreen Fitzgerald -- Wasps: the good, the bad, and the not-so-bad: Summer 2006 was a banner year for wasps in interior Alaska, much to the chargrin of picnic-goers-and with fatal consequences for two Fairbanksans. / Peter J. Landolt, Alberto Pantoja, Aaron Hagerty, Daryl Green, and Susan Emmert, with introduction by Deirdre Helfferich -- Dragonhead mint: it's for the birds: A wild northern mint may be just what the chickadee ordered-and birdwatchers looking to buy birdseed from Alaska farmers. / Deirdre Helfferich, from a research report by Bob Van Veldhuizen and Charlie Knight -- Coastal carbon: what's happening as the arctic coastline erodes?: Alaska's northern coastlines are becoming exposed to more open water as sea ice melts, and storm surges and wave action are accelerating erosion in the Arctic. Scientists want to better understand the transfer of soil sediments, carbon, and nutrients from terrestrial ecosystems to near-shore waters, and the effects of this erosion. / Doreen Fitzgerald -- The Musk ox: wooly and warm in a northern fiber industry: Qiviut is the soft, long, and warm underwool of muskoxens; it is sold as an expensive luxury fiber in specialty yarn shops. Clothing made from it is marketed as exclusive, exotic fashion, and commands a high price. The allure and value of qiviut could mean that an economically viable, specialty fiber industry based on this muskox product might be ripe for development in Alaska and Canada. / Deirdre Helfferich -- Local herbs!: Tanana Valley farmers and chefs interviewed in this senior thesis survey reveal that local is good: fresh herbs are in demand, and restaurants will pay top dollar for locally grown produce-if the farmer provides good service, timely delivery, high quality, and the right herbs. / Jacquelyn Denise Gos

Agroborealis, Vol. 36, No. 2 (Winter 2004-2005)

Downloaded from www.uaf.edu/snras April 16, 2013.Fire in Interior Alaska: Forest, fire, people, money: a balancing act for managers -- Watching the trees return -- Modeling fuels and fire to improve management: The summer of 2004 was a hot and smoky one for Alaska's Interior, focusing residents' attention on fire management issues. / Doreen Fitzgerald -- Wetlands and Wastewater Treatment in Alaska: Dave Maddux, a PhD graduate of SNRAS, has been bringing wholesome natural relief to communities in Alaska by building marshes for wastewater treatment. / Deirdre Helfferich -- Research Crops Do Double Duty: Experimental crops grown at the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station are examined and measured for research, but then what? Where do those fields of potatoes and other crops go? / Doreen Fitzgerald -- Agronomic Crops for Alaska: A quarter-century of variety testing of grains and other field crops has shown which ones are adapted to Alaska's short growing season and long days-and which are not. / Deirdre Helfferich -- Remembering Mike: A natural resources scholarship in forestry has been renamed in honor of Mike Hoyt. Hoyt was an active member of the SNRAS Board of Advisors. here his colleages and friends recall the tremendous work and enthusiasm of his life. / Doreen Fitzgerald -- Wilmking Wins Prize for Ecology Research: SNRAS PhD graduate Martin Wilmking recently won a prestigious award from his country of Germany to further his research in forest ecology and carbon cycling. / Doreen Fitzgerald -- Preparing for Wildfire: Tips for homeowners: Here's what property owners can do to reduce the risk of damage when wildfire threatens: suggestions for building maintenance and landscaping for your home and grounds. / Doreen Fitzgerald -- What is B.O.B.?: The use of a small blimp equipped with a camera has proven invaluable in range management research and ecological studies. / Connie Harris with Deirdre Helfferic

Agroborealis, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Winter 2006-2007)

Print version published Winter 2005-2006; web version published 2006-2007Green Map Fairbanks: The geography of a community, as expressed in a map, doesn't have to limit itself to street names and topographical features. Green Map System Project #350 will be an online map of the Fairbanks area that includes cultural assets, recycling options, toxic waste hot spots, and more. / Deirdre Helfferich -- We all depend on our forests: The president of the National Association of University Forest Resources Programs (NAUFRP) offers commentary on our shared interest in the health, productivity, and sustainability of our forests. / Don DeHayes, reprinted from the Rutland Daily Herald -- Forests for a Richer Future: NAUFRP's vision statement on forests for the twenty-first century: educating the public about forests; building science-based technologies that sustain forest resources; using conservation and management strategies that meet society's needs; and advancing a social contract of sustainable management. / National Association of University Forest Resources Programs -- Wildland fire and climate change: Alaska's climate is changing. Strong linkages between climate, fire, and vegetation imply that fire's sensitivity to global change could be more important than the direct effects of climatic warming on terrestrial ecosystems. / Doreen Fitzgerald -- Fuel breaks for fire mitigation: After the record-breaking fire season of 2004 and 2005, fire and public land managers knew they needed a proactive approach to hazardous fuel reduction, particularly in the black spruce forests of Alaska's interior. / Doreen Fitzgerald -- The Muskox: a new northern farm animal?: Researchers at the Institute of Arctic Biology and the School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences are teaming up to study muskox husbandry, genetics, and reproduction at the Robert G. White Large Animal Research Station. / Deirdre Helfferich -- Reindeer in Alaska: under new management: Reindeer herders on the Seward Peninsula, working with SNRAS researchers, are finding effective ways to protect their livestock from loss to caribou herds, and at the same time improve their animals' productivity. / Greg Finstad -- Breeding a new variety of barley for Alaska: Wooding barley, the latest barley variety developed for Alaska by Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station researchers, took years of careful breeding and selection to create. / Doreen Fitzgerald -- Using Alaska's hulless barley in a new food product: AFES agronomist Bob Van Veldhuizen asked the UAF Cooperative Extension Service Food Product Development program to help determine if daughter strains of Thual barley had similar food characteristics to their parent. Time to make crackers!. / Kristy Long and Trateng Kamolluck -- Seminar explores the nature of American food: The issues highlighted in the book The Omnivore's Dilemma were the subject of analysis and discussion in a class lead by SNRAS professors Susan Todd and Milan Shipka: what we eat, where it came from, how it got to us, and what its real cost to us is. / Doreen Fitzgeral

Agroborealis, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Winter/Spring 2007-2008)

Bonita J. Neiland remembered: The woman instrumental in founding the School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences was a scientist ahead of her time. / Dorren Fitzgerald / Biomass for biofuels: not all trees are created equal: Alaska has vast stretches of forest: woody biomass that could be investigated for its potential as biofuel. Basic research is needed to determine the chemical composition and characteristics of the state's vast stores of the only renewable resource available capable of producing complex hydrocarbons. SNRAS researchers are conducting preliminary research into this potential through liquefaction of different tree species. / Andres Soria -- Muskox husbandry: Three commercial muskox farms and the University of Alaska Fairbanks are working on developing best practices for raising, feeding, and caring for muskoxen. / Deirdre Helfferich -- Boreal forest soils: nutrient cycling, microbes, and the fate of oil: In a long-term research experiment begun in 1977, a deliberate oil spill was created by researchers to study the effects of terrestrial oils spills on arctic and subarctic soils, microbes, and vegetation. In 2004, the experiment took an abrupt jog into uncharted territory when a wildfire burned through the closely-monitored study site. Yet, the destruction of one set of conditions laid the groundwork for new insight into nitrogen cycling and fire effects on boreal forest soils. / Doreen Fitzgerald, based on Jessica Garron's End of an Era of Experimental Oil Spill Sites -- Conflicting wildlife mandates: A new legal analysis finds that Alaska's wildlife management statute directly conflicts with the management mandates laid out by Congress in the National Park Service Organic Act and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. / Article adapted by Doreen Fitzgerald from original by Julie Lurman -- Agriculture 100 years ago: the search for self-sufficiency: Farmers in Fairbanks a century ago struggled with the same issues as we face today: competition from Outside, disbelief that agriculture is viable in the north, domestic animals and plants ill-adapted to Alaska's climate, lack of supporting infrastructure and organizations. In setting out to overcome these obstacles, they provided their modern counterparts with valuable examples in the search for a sustainable northern food industry. / Excerpts from Like a Tree to the Soil, by Jo Papp and Josie Phillip

Agroborealis, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Fall 2006)

Tanana Valley farming: yesteryear's crops: The Tanana Valley was a major agricultural center in Alaska during the first half of the twentieth century. Cooperation between the Fairbanks Experiment Farm and local farmers and greenhouse operators led to many fruitful farming successes. / Excerpts from publications by Rochelle Lee Pigors, Josephine Papp, and Josie Phillips -- At the farm: alumni and employee remember: The Fairbanks Experimental Farm celebrated its 100th anniversary this summer. A few former employees and students write about their work and times down on the farm. / Leigh Dennison, Hal Livingston, and Barbara E. Green -- Reindeer meat-is it always tender, tasty, and healthy?: What makes reindeer meat good? The author provides an overview of reindeer meat research in four areas: pre-slaughter handling in relation to animal welfare and meat quality, effects of commercial grain-based feed mixtures and pasture on meat quality, chemical composition of meat and product quality, and sensory evaluation of reindeer meat. / Eva Wiklund -- The expert tastebud: Taste testers, or sensory panelists, evaluate reindeer meat for scientists in the Reindeer Research Program-but how do scientists train the panelists' tastebuds? / Deirdre Helfferich -- Controlled environments in Alaska: Simple to highly advanced controlled environment systems-from temporary cold frames to facilities using technology developed for space exploration-can be adapted to Alaska's regional conditions to improve production of vegetables, berries, and floral crops. / Doreen Fitzgerald with Meriam Karlsson -- Greenhouse tomato production for Alaska: For Alaska growers, tomato production in a controlled environment allows for better disease control, high productivity, and a longer season than field tomatoes. / Meriam Karlsson -- Small farm viability: Bigger is not always better, nor necessarily more profitable. Changes in technology, such as using high tunnels for season extension, can improve the economic and environmental viability of small-scale agriculture in Alaska. / Doreen Fitzgerald, Heidi Rader, and Meriam Karlsson -- Tea time in southeast Alaska: The Sitka Forest Products Program and undergraduate students in natural resources management are working with an herbal tea producer in Haines to create better tea production methods for wild Alaska herbs. / Deirdre Helfferic

Agroborealis, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Summer 2005)

Downloaded from www.uaf.edu/snras April 16, 2013.Morels: a morsel after the fire: Last year's Interior wildfires may provide Alaskans with a bumper crop of morels in 2005 and 2006. These sought-after mushrooms are a valuable forest product and grow profusely in the year immediately after a fire. Scientists are studying their genetics and growth patterns, and the potential for commercial morel harvesting in Alaska. / Deirdre Helfferich -- Students and Environmental Ethics: Three undergraduate students in SNRAS's environmental ethics class describe formative experiences in their lives that led to guiding principles for their relationship with their environment. / Amy Craigen, Christopher Held, and Ben Meyer -- Exotic Plants in Alaska's Parks: Alaska hasn't suffered the ravages of exotic species invasions the way the Lower 48 has, but the aliens are coming North. The National Park Service has been conducting baseline surveys to determine the extent of this problem in Alaska's parks, and how best to combat it. / Chris McKee -- Creativity and Independent Thought: Resources management seniors tackle rewarding thesis projects: Natural Resources Management students take on real research projects to gain experience in formulating good questions, methods, and reports. / Doreen Fitzgerald with work by Cody Peterson and Michael Gibson, and selected abstracts by George Aguiar, Cody Burgess, Nathaniel Endicott, Heidi Lingenfelter, and Christopher Swisher -- Revitalizing U.S. Support for Developing Nations' Agriculture: Dean Lewis serves with six other Americans on a panel that advises USAID. / Doreen Fitzgerald -- Recent AFES Publications: New publications from the Alaska Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station: vegetable trials, peonies for commercial production, fire in the North and other subjects