Judson Scott, pictured at right, first fell in love with Alaska when he did research here as a college student. He volunteered in 1993 for a summer internship with the Student Conservation Association through the Kenai Fisheries Office of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. He conducted surveys of anadramous fish populations in each of forty streams and rivers on the island of Naval Station Adak. He took electroshock samples, gill net samples, conducted visual counts, and did rod and reel surveys. He collected water quality data for each stream, recorded GPS data for the mouth and upper barrier of each stream, took species, sex, weight, length data, and took otolith bone samples from fish, aged fish from otoliths, and recorded geographic data on the streams themselves. He also conducted sonar topography mapping of several lake bottoms on the Kenai Peninsula.
When the Matanuska Experiment Farm opened up a position for farm superintendent, Scott, who had been living in Colorado but keeping his eye on the potential for work in Alaska, applied for the job, and was hired. “I am thrilled to be here,” Scott said. The farm position is a good fit for him because he has long been fascinated with agricultural research.
He is responsible for the field operations, physical plant operations, and administrative functions necessary to meet the needs of research, instruction, and outreach at the farm.
Raised in Wyoming and Colorado, Scott earned a B.A. in environmental conservation at the University of Colorado at Boulder and a B.S. in landscape horticulture with an emphasis in turfgrass management at Colorado State University. His career has focused on golf course construction, maintenance, and management, including a six-year stint at Settlers Bay Golf Course in Wasilla. While there, he helped with turfgrass variety trials and installed two research putting greens. In cooperation with the Palmer Research and Extension Center, he constructed two putting greens at Settlers Bay, both used for variety trials research of northern latitude adapted turfgrass species. Up to sixteen varieties of turfgrass have been in the green at one time, and the plots are still being utilized for research today. He also worked two years on the North Slope.
His goals are for the farm to continue to diversify its research to match the changes occurring in Alaska and to “really bring the valley to know and support the work we’re doing here.”
Scott and his wife Tanya have two children. In his free time Scott enjoys hunting and fishing and would like to get back to flying bush planes as soon as time allows.
The Matanuska Experiment Farm was established in 1917 and became part of UAF’s Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station in 1931. With 260 cultivated acres and 800 acres of forest, it is used for research in sustainable agriculture, land reclamation, and environmental issues.
Soil research and managing crops for sustainable agriculture emphasize:
• Plant breeding, especially developing small grain varieties adapted to northern latitudes
• Forage quality including developing alternative forages with superior nutritional qualities for high latitudes
• Soil science involving classifying arctic and subarctic soils, carbon cycling in arctic soils in relation to global change, cooperative Russia-Alaska research on permafrost-affected soils in Alaska and eastern Siberia
• Range science and research ecology on reclaiming and revegetating lands disturbed by oil and mining development
Horticulture research focuses on:
• Evaluating potato varieties suitable for Alaska's growing conditions
• Assessing and controlling potato diseases
• Evaluating alternative organic fertilizers
• Evaluating lettuce varieties for disease and tip burn resistance
• Evaluating alternative vegetable crops
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