Economist analyzes Alaska resource issues

Read about the economic research conducted by Professor Joshua Greenberg in the newest Agroborealis Research Highlight.

As the natural resource economist for School of Natural Resources and Extension, Greenberg studies the effects of resource policies and develops economic models. Recently, he developed a series of business plans for Savoonga to consider whether to develop a commercial reindeer business. Greenberg has specialized in fisheries, but he has studied many other resource issues, including the feasibility of raising musk ox for qiviut, the economic value of reindeer range, the peony industry, sustainable livestock production and carbon sequestration. The Agroborealis Research Highlight describes his work over the past 30 years.

Two additional Highlights were posted this year. One highlight describes recreation research by Pete Fix, an associate professor with the UAF School of Natural Resources and Extension. Fix and two other recreation researchers have developed a cost-effective approach that will be used nationally to evaluate visitor experiences on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

A second highlight looks at Greg Finstad’s reindeer research and outreach, which has focused on helping develop a local red meat industry. Finstad is the program manager for the UAF Reindeer Research Program and teaches High Latitude Range Management classes through the Northwest Campus in Nome.

Agroborealis Research Highlights are published online twice yearly by the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and School of Natural Resources and Extension at www.uaf.edu/snre/agroborealis. The two-page highlights are downloadable.

Links to the stories will be emailed when they are posted on this site. If you’d like to be added to the email list, please subscribe here.

United Nations agency to honor UAF weather station

Alan Tonne stands in the Fairbanks Experiment Farm weather station.
He records weather information daily at 8 a.m. UAF photo by J.R. Ancheta

The Fairbanks Experiment Farm operates the longest continuously running weather observation station in Alaska.

The farm has been steadfastly recording weather data since July 1, 1911. The station is unusual because of its long-term record of weather data collected in essentially the same location — a small, fenced area in front of the farm’s old visitor center.

Reliable weather data collected over a long period of time in the same location is valuable to climate scientists and others, says John Walsh, one of several University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists who will speak at a Nov. 30 recognition ceremony for the station.

The station is one of four long-term observing stations in the U.S. the World Meteorological Organization will honor this year. An awards ceremony will take place from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Nov. 30 in Room 501 of the Akasofu Building, on the campus’ West Ridge. The public is invited.

The World Meteorological Organization is a United Nations agency that supports the worldwide collection of reliable weather data for science. In 2017, it started recognizing “centennial stations,” or stations that had collected weather data in one location for more than 100 years.

The maximum and minimum temperatures are collected with a
digital thermometer. All other weather records are gathered
on site. UAF photo by J.R. Ancheta

Walsh is the chief scientist for the International Arctic Research Center and an expert in climate change and sea ice. Relatively few weather stations have that long record because after commercial airports opened, most stations moved to an airport, he said. The National Weather Service in Fairbanks moved from Weeks Field to the Fairbanks International Airport in 1951.

“The station down there is key,” he said of the farm. “The long, consistent record is important when you’re looking at the difference of 1 to 2 degrees over 100 years.”

Walsh has used the station’s records to study changes in snow cover. When the ground gains or loses its snow cover, daily temperatures can change by 10 degrees because snow reflects more sunlight. He studied the records for sudden jumps of temperature that could indicate snow cover or a lack of it.

Rick Thoman, a climate specialist for the university, has used the station’s records to look at changes in the growing season. The growing season at the station has lengthened by 23 days over the last 50 years, from 1969 to 2018, he said. The longer growing season is not as pronounced at the airport, which is only four miles away at a slightly lower elevation. The freeze-free season has only been extended by 10 days.

Glenn Juday, a retired UAF forest ecologist, said experiment stations around the country began collecting weather information because of its importance to farmers. When Fairbanks’ earliest residents arrived, no one really knew what would grow in Alaska’s climate or how long the growing season was.

“It was considered essential data,” he said.

Alan Tonne shows how he records the weather information.

Juday has used the weather records to study how temperature, precipitation and other weather events affect the growth and health of trees of the same year.

“Essentially half of the variability of the growth of the tree is connected to weather parameters,” he said.

Carven Scott, who heads the National Weather Service in Alaska, will present a bronze plaque to Alan Tonne, the farm’s manager and principal collector of weather data over the past 13 years. Tonne takes the weather observations at 8 a.m. each day. Maximum and minimum temperatures are measured electronically, but Tonne measures evaporation and wind volume, precipitation and snow depth on site.

The Fairbanks Experiment Farm took over weather observation duties in 1911 from the Episcopal Church, which had collected weather information beginning in 1904. The experiment farm remained the only weather station in Fairbanks until the U.S. Weather Bureau opened an office in downtown Fairbanks in 1929. The farm’s weather station is now one nine active cooperative observing stations in the Fairbanks area that provide community weather information.

A total of seven stations have been recognized in the U.S. as centennial stations. Others recognized this year are in at the Buffalo Bill Dam in Wyoming; Purdum, Nebraska; and Saint Johnsbury, Vermont.

Hot tea and refreshments will be available at the Nov. 30 event.

Homer to host invasive species workshop Nov. 13-15

Invasive signal crayfish are being harvested on
Kodiak Island for sport and eating. iStock photo

The Alaska Invasive Species Workshop, Nov. 13-15 in Homer, will highlight invasive species management and research statewide and will emphasize marine species.

The theme is “Surf and Turf: Invasive Species Above and Below the Tideline.” The annual event kicks off with a free workshop on invasive species at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 12, followed by a 6:30 p.m. public lecture at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center. Matthew Barnes, an assistant professor from Texas Tech University, will talk about the forensic use of environmental DNA to survey for and manage invasive species. Environmental DNA is the DNA of organisms contained in soil or water samples.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service and the Alaska Committee For Noxious and Invasive Pest Management will host the workshop at Land’s End Resort, 4786 Homer Spit Road.

In a keynote address, Barnes will talk about managing invasive species by harvesting and eating them. Several other presentations will be made on “invasivores,” or people who eat invasive species for culinary enjoyment or to help control them. Workshop coordinator Gino Graziano said the management approach is used around the country on the more palatable invasive species, including signal crayfish in Kodiak. Graziano said the invasivore refrain is, “If you can’t beat them, eat them.”

Presentations will cover invasive species in Dutch Harbor and the Pribilof Islands, the European green crab and invertebrate tunicates in Kachemak Bay, and Didemnum vexillum, a highly invasive tunicate found near Sitka. Other topics include partnerships to create awareness about invasive species and the management of species of specific concern, such as elodea, hawkweed, Canada thistle, chokecherry, knapweed and European earthworms.

The agenda and registration information are available at www.uaf.edu/ces/invasives/conference.www.uaf.edu/ces/invasives/conference For more information, contact Graziano at 907-786-6315 or gagraziano@alaska.edu.

Sustainable Agriculture Conference set for Nov. 5-7

An onion field at Vanderweele Farm in Palmer. Edwin Remsberg photo

The Alaska Sustainable Agriculture Conference will take place in Anchorage Nov. 5-7.

More than 80 presentations will cover diverse topics, including seaweed farming, rhodiola production, soil health, marketing, honeybees and pollinators, reindeer husbandry, livestock feeding, farm energy, the cut flower industry, and farming and gardening in rural Alaska. One session will even cover how to use pigs to improve land for farming. Pigs forage on vegetation, loosen soil, clear land and enhance soil fertility.

Casey Matney, an agriculture and horticulture agent for the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, is coordinating the 14th annual conference.

“It’s about all things agriculture throughout the state,” he said.

Presenters include farmers, researchers, Extension agents, and representatives from agricultural agencies and businesses. Matney said a goal of the conference is to share information and improve the agricultural industry in Alaska.

For the first time, several sessions will focus on mariculture, or aquatic farming, of seaweed and shellfish. Participants will hear about Blue Evolution, which operates a seaweed hatchery in Kodiak. Farmed seaweed is used a variety of ways, including as an ingredient in sushi, seaweed pasta, vitamins and fertilizers for gardening.

“Mariculture is a great opportunity for producers in Alaska,” Matney said.

An all-day session will highlight research and producer experience growing rhodiola, an herb that Alaska farmers have begun cultivating for its roots. Proponents say the plant, which takes several years to mature, helps battle fatigue.

The conference location rotates among Alaska communities. It will take place this year at the BP Energy Center, with some sessions at the SpringHill Suites University Lake Hotel at 4050 University Lake Drive. The Cooperative Extension Service hosts the conference, which is sponsored by the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.

An all-day pre-conference workshop on Nov. 4 will focus on Alaska produce safety training to comply with new federal rules. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation will offer the training. Mel Sikes, coordinator of the Fairbanks Soil and Water Conservation District, will also lead an all-day post-conference workshop Nov. 8 on the Alaska Agriculture in the Classroom program and resources.

Registration and conference information are available at http://bit.ly/AKsareconf. Participants may register by the day or for the entire conference. For more information, contact Matney at camatney@alaska.edu or 907-262-5824.

Registration opens for Sustainable Ag Conference

Hay is harvested at Hollembaek Farms near Delta Junction  in 2014.
Edwin Remsberg photo

Registration is open for the 14th annual Alaska Sustainable Agriculture Conference, which will take place in Anchorage Nov. 5-7.

More than 75 presentations will cover a wide range of agricultural topics, including livestock and rhodiola production, climate, vegetable variety trials, cut-flower production, honey bees, soil health, seaweed farming, integrated pest management, product distribution and marketing. Several agricultural agencies will also provide program updates.

The UAF Cooperative Extension Service hosts the annual conference in different locations in Alaska. The goal is to bring producers, researchers, agencies and others together to share information and to improve the agricultural industry. The conference will take place at the BP Energy Center at 1014 Energy Court, but some sessions will meet at the SpringHill Suites University Lake Hotel at 4050 University Lake Drive.

An all-day pre-conference workshop on Nov. 4 will focus on Alaska produce safety training to comply with new federal rules. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation will offer the training.

Mel Sikes, coordinator of the Fairbanks Soil and Water Conservation District, will lead an all-day post-conference workshop Nov. 8 on the Alaska Agriculture in the Classroom program and resources.

The conference is sponsored by the Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program. Participants may register by the day or for the entire conference. If individuals register by Oct. 28, the conference and workshop fee is $125 or the daily fee is $50. Fees increase after that date.

More information is available at http://bit.ly/AKsareconf or from conference coordinator Casey Matney, an agriculture and horticulture Extension agent in Soldotna. He can be reached at camatney@alaska.edu or 907-262-5824.

Presentations will come from many agricultural agencies,  organizations and producers. More than 20 SNRE faculty and staff will present at the conference.

SNRE presenters and their presentations are:
• Fred Schlutt: Cooperative Extension Service Status and Update
• Jodie Anderson, Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center Update
• Darren Snyder, Insights from the National SARE Our Farms Our Future Conference
• Meriam Karlsson, Growing Under Lights
• Julie Riley, Season Extension with Dormant and Late Seedlings: Spinach and Cilantro; Cilantro Variety Trials Using Wide-Row Techniques
• Heidi Rader, Variety Trials: Grow and Tell App
• Pat Holloway, Taking a Closer Look at Alaska Cut Flower Production
• Sarah Lewis, Wild Kitchen Walks in Juneau; Getting Acquainted with Cottage Foods and the Possibilities
• Milan Shipka, Feed Needs for Alaska Livestock
• Lisa Lunn, Parasite Levels in Alaska Livestock
• Art Nash and Mingchu Zhang, Get the Heat Out: Using Wood for Biochar
• George Aguiar, Reindeer Husbandry
• Art Nash: Growing Well, Off Grid: Considerations for Water Transfer, Heat and Light When You Can't Plug Into a 120 Outlet
• Gino Graziano, Invasive Plants in the Field: New Resources for Insect, Plant Disease Recognition Apps/Pest Portal
• Phil Kaspari, Do You Need to Be a Certified Applicator?
• Heidi Rader and Casey Matney, Agriculture in Remote and Rural Alaska Communities
• Steve Brown, Alaska Rhodiola Growers and Research
• Kevin Fochs, Update on FFA in Alaska
• Lee Hecimovich, Darren Snyder and Cassandra Rankin, Youth Programming Updates from Mat-Su, Southeast and Soldotna









ON THE WEB: http://bit.ly/AKsareconf

Forest Fest brings competitors out of the woodwork

Birling competitors face off in Ballaine Lake.

Experienced and newbie lumberjacks turned out Saturday for one of the warmest Farthest North Forest Sports Festivals on record — with no snow on the ground and a mostly ice-free Ballaine Lake.

The morning competition started in the farm fields across from the Georgeson Botanical Garden with the axe-throwing, sawing, log rolling and pulp toss events. Activities shifted to Ballaine Lake around lunchtime for fire building and birling, which requires balancing on a plastic log floating in Ballaine Lake.

Belle of the Woods Ida Petersen and Bull of the Woods
Vic Anderson pose with their certificates.

The event draws competitors who come year after year and novices, including university students and alumni, curious community members and their friends.

Larsen Hess, a 2009 natural resources management graduate, showed up with his own double-bitted axe in a leather case and his wife, Arisa Sasaki.

“ I love it,” he said. “I grew up with loggers.”

His family has been logging in Oregon for four or five generations, he said. Larsen, an electrician, earned the “Bull of the Woods” title 10 years ago, while competing with his father. He proudly showed off his hand-forged axe, which was made in Sweden.

Anika Pinzner, a UAF graduate student from Germany who is studying snow pollution, appeared to be having a great time. She especially liked throwing axes. “This is the most Alaskan thing I’ve ever done,” she said.

This year’s top male and female competitors, the Bull of the Woods and Belle of the Woods, are relative newcomers to the event. Vic Anderson, who surveys forests for the state and U.S. Forest Service, was competing for the first time and this is the second competition for Ida Petersen, an environmental engineer at Fort Wainwright.

Anderson said while he has never competed, he does like spending time outdoors. The duo also competed on the winning team, the “Beleaguered Beavers,” along with teammates Victoria Smith and Jon Hutchinson, who both placed second overall.

Anika Pinzner lobs an axe at a target.

Most of the other team names reflect a woodsman theme, such as Old Growth, Dirty Woodspeople and Morning Wood. Old Growth was composed of mature competitors, including longtime competitors Pete Buist, his son Jason, Alice Orlich, and Pete Buist’s neighbors, Mark and Sheryl DeBoard, who were recruited to round out the team.

The fire-building event starts with a big chunk of log, which must be split and chopped into kindling and smaller pieces to start a fire. It has to get hot enough to boil water in a tin can. Competing in the Jack and Jill fire-building  event, Victoria Smith leaned in a little too close to the fire at one point to blow on it. “I didn’t need my eyebrows anyway,” she joked.

The event relies on volunteer help from former students, and current and former staff and faculty of the School of the Natural Resources and Extension and the student Resource Management Society. Chief organizer Dave Valentine thanks sponsors Northland Wood for their donation of lumber used in the competition and Fairbanks Stump Grinders for volunteering during the event.

Forest Fest winners include:

Belle of the Woods (overall female winner): Ida Petersen
Second: Victoria Smith
Third: Alice Orlich

Jon Hutchinson and Ida Petersen blow on their fire to get it going better.

Bull of the Woods (overall male winner): Vic Anderson
Second: Jon Hutchinson
Third: Pete Buist

Team Winner: Beleaguered Beavers with Vic Anderson, Ida Petersen, Victoria Smith and Jon Hutchinson

Axe Throw (female):  Alice Orlich

Axe Throw (male): Jon Hutchinson

Birling (female):  Channing Bolt

Birling (male): Vic Anderson

Bow Saw (female):  Ida Petersen

Bow Saw (male):  Jason Buist

Double Buck Saw (female):  Ida Petersen and Victoria Smith

Double Buck Saw (male):  Jason Buist and Pete Buist

Double Buck Saw (Jack & Jill): Vic Anderson and Victoria Smith

The winningest team, the Beleaguered Beavers, displays their certificates.
From left, are Vic Anderson, Victoria Smith, Jon Hutchinson and Ida Petersen.

Fire Building (two-person team): Jon Hutchinson and Ida Petersen

Pulp Toss: Old Growth, including Jason Buist, Pete Buist, Mark DeBoard, Alice Orlich, Michelle Boutin, Sheryl DeBoard and Barbara Michael

Log rolling (female):  Victoria Smith and Ida Petersen

Log rolling (male): Todd Vorlselt and Craig Brennan

Log rolling (Jack & Jill): Victoria Smith and Vic Anderson

Moving logs with a peavy proves challenging.

Farthest North Forest Fest set for Oct. 6 at UAF

A competitor at the 2017 Forest Fest works a bow saw.

Who will be the next Bull of the Woods and Belle of the Woods?

Come to the 21st annual Farthest North Sports Festival on Oct. 6 and find out, or better yet, compete.

Students and community members 18 and older are invited to try their hand at old-time logging sports, such as ax throwing, log rolling, bow saw and crosscut sawing, fire building and birling. Birling involves staying upright longer than your competitor on a floating log in the lake.

Balancing on the plastic birling "log" is a challenge.

The event at UAF is free and beginners are welcomed. People may compete as individuals, but are encouraged to form teams of four to six. At the end of the day, awards will be given to individuals, teams and the top male and female competitors. Observers are welcomed, but pets must be kept on a leash.

Students and faculty with the School of Natural Resources and Extension developed the competition as a way to commemorate old-time logging festivals — and to have a good time.

The Forest Fest begins at 10 a.m. at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm fields, across from the Georgeson Botanical Garden. At 1 p.m., the games move to Ballaine Lake. Refreshments will be available and donations are welcome.  A warming fire and some grilled food will be available at the lake.

Participants are advised to dress warmly and to bring a change of clothes if they want to try birling. For more information, contact Dave Valentine at dvalentine@alaska.edu or 907-474-7614.

Registration opens for Women in Agriculture Conference

  

Registration is open for the 2018 Women in Agriculture Conference. The one-day virtual gathering on Oct. 27 will take place at four Alaska locations this year — in Fairbanks, Delta Junction, Palmer and Soldotna.

The event will include 34 sites in Alaska, Montana, Oregon, Idaho and Washington. Speakers will address this year’s theme, “Pump up your Financial Fitness.”

The program will begin at 7:30 a.m. in Alaska. The featured speakers will be Robin Reid and LaVell Windsor, who will present “How does your cash flow,” and Sarah Beth Aubrey, whose keynote speech is titled “Attention Women: You are a Valuable Part of Agriculture.” She will talk about prioritizing and about new research that shows the value women bring to the farm.

Register at http://womeninag.wsu.edu/. The early bird fee until Oct. 14 is $30; registration will be $35 after that date. The conference fee includes the workshop, a light breakfast, lunch and conference materials.

Alaska locations will include:

 •  Fairbanks, University of Alaska Fairbanks Murie Building, Room 103-105

 •  Delta Junction, Delta Career Advancement Center, 1696 Clearwater Ave.

 •  Soldotna, Kenai River Center, 514 Funny River Road

 •  Palmer, Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center, 1509 S. Georgeson Drive

SNRE will host the event in Fairbanks and the Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center is co-hosting the event with Alaska Farmland Trust. The Kenai and Salcha-Delta Soil and Water Conservation Districts will host the event in Soldotna and Delta Junction.

This is the fourth year the conference has taken place in Alaska. See the story on the 2017 event. More than 50 women attended at three sites.

SNRE students awarded scholarships for 2018-2019

Congratulations to undergraduate students with the School of Natural Resources and Extension who received scholarships for the coming year.

The scholarships range from $600 to $3,200.  A SNRE scholarship committee recommends students for the scholarships based on their criteria, and UAF notifies the students. The recipients are:

Grace Nelson: Mike Hoyt Society of American Foresters Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to outstanding natural resources management students. The scholarship honors Mike Hoyt, a forester who earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UAF and was widely respected in the forestry community.

Amber Fryze-Newsome: Walt Begalka Memorial Scholarship.  The scholarship is awarded to outstanding natural resources management students. The Society of American Foresters Dixon Entrance Chapter established the scholarship to assist forestry students.

Jessica Landry: Society of American Foresters/Richard W. and Margery Tindall Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to outstanding natural resources management students at UAF. The society established this scholarship to honor Richard Tindall and to assist forestry students. Margery Tindall’s name was later added to the scholarship.

Trevor Schoening: Paul and Flora Greimann Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded to outstanding juniors and seniors with the School of Natural Resources and Extension but agriculture students are preferred.  Greimann was a businessman and former state senator who operated a bus between Fairbanks and the university for 22 years, beginning in 1931.

Trevor Schoening: Richard E. Lee Scholarship.  The scholarship is awarded to outstanding engineering or natural resources management students. A bequest from Richard E. Lee established the scholarship for mining engineering or environmental science upperclassmen who have graduated from Alaska high schools.

New director starts job at Matanuska Experiment Farm

Jodie Anderson

Jodie Anderson is the new director of the Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center near Palmer.

Anderson started her new job Aug. 20. As director, she will provide leadership for the academic, research and Cooperative Extension Service outreach programs based at the facility, which is part of  the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Anderson has a varied background in agriculture and natural resources. Most recently, she served as program coordinator for the Division of Agriculture’s Farm to School Program and worked with farmers, nonprofit organizations and others to bring local food to schools and public food service distributors. Anderson has also worked as a soil scientist, researched potato viruses, and taught high school and college biology, and gardening and composting classes.  As a doctoral student with the School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences (now SNRE), she studied fish waste as an option for composting and soil building.

 “I’m sort of a jack-of-all-trades,” she said.

The university’s Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station encompasses the experiment farms in Palmer and in Fairbanks. Experiment Station Director Milan Shipka said that he is happy to have someone with strong experience in a variety of areas, who knows the community, the university and the Palmer center.

“She has some very good ideas that will help develop the Matanuska Experiment Farm,” he said.

Anderson said she looks forward to working with the community and hopes to strengthen agricultural and natural resources research by partnering with other agencies.

Anderson grew up in Michigan and North Carolina, but she has lived in Palmer since 2003. In her spare time, she and her husband run a catering business and she likes to barbecue and grill, fish, hike and do other outdoor activities.

She says she has made it her personal mission to improve Alaska barbecue standards “one pork shoulder at a time.” She was part of a team of four, including her husband and two friends, who won the Alaska Seafood Showdown last week at the Alaska State Fair by grilling Asian-inspired steamed clams, cod and marinated shrimp with Alaska-grown vegetables. Anderson may be reached at jmanderson@alaska.edu or 907-746-9466.

SNRE hosts Hokkaido University students again

The Hokkaido group and Miho Morimoto celebrate after hiking Angel Rocks.

For the third year, School of Natural Resources and Extension hosted the 10-day Alaska Natural Resources Sustainability Field Seminar, which ended last Friday.

Participants included two professors and six students from Hokkaido University. Postdoctoral researcher Miho Morimoto led most of the tour, with help from SNRE Academic Director Dave Valentine.

Glenn Juday talks to the exchange group about research at the Bonanza Creek
Experimental Forest.

The seminar combined lectures by scientists and field tours. Subjects included wildlife management, cold climate housing and energy, forest regeneration, the aurora, sustainability, the pipeline, permafrost, the changing boreal forest, agriculture, birch syrup, forest management and fisheries.

The Japanese contingent toured the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest, the Permafrost Tunnel near Fox, forestry research plots at UAF, the gold dredge at Chatanika, the University of Alaska Museum of the North and Poker Flat Research Range, and the group rode a shuttle bus into Denali National Park. SNRE lecturers included Valentine, Milan Shipka, Mingchu Zhang, Glenn Juday and Jan Dawe. Valentine said the Japanese professors say the smaller group this year is due to a schedule conflict. The visiting faculty were upbeat about the program and want to return again, he said. They are committed to marketing it in the future.

Variety trials, vegetable workshops set for August

Heidi Rader stands in her corn plots at the Georgeson Botanical Garden,

Heidi Rader will lead three workshops in August on the vegetable variety trials she is conducting at the Georgeson Botanical Garden and offer tips for growing the vegetables she is testing.

The free workshops will take place in the garden’s Beistline Outdoor Classroom from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Rader, a tribes Extension educator for the UAF Cooperative Extension Service, will talk about growing carrots, beets and beans on Aug. 7; corn and celery, Aug. 14; and Brussels sprouts and watermelon, Aug. 28. Participants may taste test the varieties and learn about the best practices for growing these crops.

Six varieties of celery are being tested in the trials.

This is the second year of a five-year variety trial project funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Rader said the goal is to help gardeners and farmers choose varieties that grow well in the Interior. As the vegetables mature, they will be evaluated for yield, taste, plant and seedling vigor, harvest period and susceptibility to pests.

Eleven varieties of beets, 12 varieties of carrots and six celery varieties are being grown in replicated trials. Twelve varieties of Brussels sprouts, 10 bean varieties, 14 varieties of corn and four types of watermelon are also being evaluated for more rigorous tests in the future.

Participants are asked to sign up for the workshops at http://bit.ly/2z4FxVF. Rader is also taking recommendations on what should be tested in the future. A short survey is available at http://bit.ly/2A9JjNX. For more information, contact Rader at hbrader@alaska.edu or at 452-8251, ext. 3477.

Alaska's longest-running weather station to be honored

A small, fenced-in area at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm contains the longest continuously running weather observation station in Alaska.

Alan Tonne with the cylinder he uses to collect
precipitation at the farm.

The experiment farm began recording the weather on July 1, 1911 and has been doing it ever since.

Rick Thoman, the climate science and services manager for the National Weather Service in Alaska, said other places in the state have recorded the weather longer, but their locations have moved around a great deal. The farm’s weather station has remained in virtually the same spot since 1911.

Thoman said that consistency is important, because shifting the station even a short distance can make quite a bit of difference in readings.

“The places that haven’t moved much are so valuable when we look at climate records,” he said.  He notes that the longtime observations are critical to understanding the changing environment.

The station at the University of Alaska Fairbanks is one of four long-term observing stations in the U.S. that the World Meteorological Organization will recognize this fall. The United Nations’ agency notified the National Weather Service recently that the station will receive a bronze plaque this fall. Other stations to be recognized are at the Buffalo Bill Dam in Wyoming; Purdum, Nebraska; and Saint Johnsbury, Vermont.

An early photo of the experiment farm shows the weather station a short distance uphill from its current location in front of the old visitors center. During the 1950s, the station moved for a couple of years to where the farm’s Georgeson Botanical Garden is now, but for most of its history, it’s been within a few yards of its current location.

Alan Tonne, the farm’s manager, records weather observations at 8 a.m. each day. The maximum and minimum temperatures are measured electronically but he makes all of the other observations on site. He measures evaporation, precipitation, snow depth and wind volume.

“You have to go out and measure the snow if it snows and the rain if it rains,” he said.

A National Weather Service sign recognizes
the weather station for being the longest continously reporting site in Alaska.

Rain is measured in a canister used at all weather stations, but if it snows, he has to melt the snow to measure the amount of moisture.

You might say weather runs in Tonne’s family. His grandmother made weather observations for 55 years in Fort Benton, Montana, and his parents have recorded observations for the Weather Service for 34 years in Stanford, Montana.

Tonne said it was strict coincidence that he also became a weather observer. He started working as a technician at the Delta Junction research site 34 years ago, and became the farm manager and chief weather observer 13 years ago.

He shares the weather data with anyone who requests it, including researchers and farmers.

Thoman said that weather, because of its importance to agriculture, was recorded at all of the early experiment farms, but the two remaining farms, which are part of the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, continue making weather observations. He notes that the station at the Matanuska Experiment Farm is the oldest continuous weather station in Southcentral.

A weather cabinet at the farm houses alcohol and mercury
thermometers that used to record maximum and
minimum temperatures.

Thoman said that the Fairbanks experiment station took over weather observation duties from the Episcopal Church, which started taking weather observations in 1904. The earliest records were signed by Episcopal priest Hudson Stuck.

The experiment farm remained the only weather station in Fairbanks until the U.S. Weather Bureau opened an office in downtown Fairbanks in 1929. That station moved to the Fairbanks International Airport in 1951.

A recognition ceremony is being planned for the the weather station in early fall. The experiment farm is one of several active cooperative weather sites in Fairbanks. The others are located at the International Arctic Research Center at UAF, North Pole, the Gilmore Creek Tracking Station, Ester, Goldstream Creek, Keystone Ridge near Murphy Dome and in Fox.

UAF researcher with SNRE receives presidential award

By Heather McFarlane
Elena Sparrow was recently honored with a U.S. presidential award for her excellence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics mentoring.

Elena Sparrow, teaches a group of educators about climate
change during a June workshop. Heather McFarlane photo

Sparrow is a University of Alaska Fairbanks research professor and the education outreach director at the International Arctic Research Center.

The award, which includes a $10,000 National Science Foundation grant, recognizes the important role mentors play in the academic and professional development of future STEM professionals. Sparrow was one of 27 individuals chosen for the award and the only recipient from Alaska.

“Each day more and more jobs require a strong foundation in STEM education, so the work that you do as teachers and mentors helps ensure that all students can have access to limitless opportunities and the brightest of futures,” said Michael Kratsios, deputy assistant to the president for technology policy, in a June 25 news release.

Sparrow founded the Alaska Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment program more than 20 years ago. The Alaska GLOBE program brings science content and the scientific process into K-12 classrooms. The program has mentored and trained over 1,400 teachers and trainers from more than 50 countries.

Throughout her career, Sparrow has also mentored students through other programs, such as the Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research site and the Alaska Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. She created a high school summer research internship program for rural Alaska students. She helped recognize female K-12 students with outstanding science fair projects. She currently leads the Experience Science, Expect a Challenge event, where Alaska Girl Scouts participate in hands-on activities related to soil science, wildlife biology, botany and other fields. She also mentors for the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists.

Sparrow is a research professor with SNRE and the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station.
Heather McFarlane is the science communication lead for the International Arctic Research Center.

Wine & Peonies to celebrate New Zealand connection

Jan Hanscom and Curtis Thorgaard show their wares during last year's wine and peonies
event. Photo by Joy Morrison

 The Georgeson Botanical Garden will host its annual Wine and Peonies gala on Friday, July 20.

The event will run from 5-7 p.m. at the University of Alaska Fairbanks botanical garden and will celebrate Alaska's peony connections with New Zealand. The fundraiser will feature peonies, New Zealand wine and music. Each participant will receive wine, hors d’oeuvres and a bouquet of fresh-cut peonies.

UAF horticulturist Pat Holloway said a couple from New Zealand, who happened to visit the garden in 2004, encouraged her to help develop a peony industry in Alaska. She had already started variety trials at the garden three years earlier.

"They were the ones who told me we were sitting on a gold mine," she said.

Peonies bloom in the July sun.

The couple, Tony and Judy Banks, were peony growers,  and they offered to host any Alaskan who wanted to come to New Zealand and learn more about how to grow peonies. Jan Hanscom, a peony grower who worked with Holloway at the experiment farm, and several other peony growers took the Banks up on their offer in 2008.  Hanscom came back and presented her findings to other growers at an Alaska Peony Growers conference.

Holloway said, "That connection would never have happened if the research trial plots were not a public botanical garden. It was sheer luck that Tony and Judy just happened to like plants and toured the garden on their vacation. It was even more lucky that I worked on Saturday when they wandered through. Sheer happenstances!"

There are more than 130 peony growers in Alaska now. Peony growers harvested more than 200,000 stems in 2016 at $5 or more a stem. Cut flowers are exported all over the Lower 48 and to Taiwan, China and Vietnam.

Jan Hanscom with peonies in the garden.

During the wine and peonies event, Holloway will give a garden tour. Posters and limited-edition giclee prints of a painting by Fairbanks artist Karen Stomberg, “Green-up Day,” will also be for sale. The Georgeson Botanical Garden Society organized the fundraiser to support operations of the garden.

Tickets are $35 when purchased by July 13 at www.georgesonbotanicalgarden.org or $45 when purchased after July 13 and at the door.  Attendees must be 21 or older unless accompanied by parent, legal guardian or adult spouse.

The garden is located at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm, 117 West Tanana Drive. For more information, contact the Georgeson Botanical Garden Society at 907-474-7222 or at gbgsociety@gmail.com.

Birthday Bash and Mud Day packs in a crowd

A celebrant at the Georgeson Birthday Bash and Mud Day makes bubbles.

The Georgeson Birthday Bash and Mud Day event drew more than 600 people to the Georgeson Botanical Garden on Sunday.

Mathew Carrick, the garden’s program director, said 649 people came, 100 more than last year. Kids made bowls and figures out of clay, poured paint on a spinning wheel to make patterns on paper, created bubbles and got their faces painted. Many visitors wandered through the garden and enjoyed the early summer flowers, but the mud pit drew the most attention. The bigger kids slid on clear plastic into a sizable mud pit in the Babula Children’s Garden and the younger kids splashed in an adjacent, shallower pit and made mud pies.

Garden manager Katie DiCristina said the mud pit is always a big draw. "I think it's just free play," she said. "Kids can go out there and play in the mud."

Action centered around the mud pits.

Many volunteers assisted with the event, including members of the Georgeson Botanical Garden Society, the Fairbanks Children's Museum and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. They sold herbs, served up birthday cake, painted faces, blew up balloons, ran the art stations and chaperoned the mud pit. Carrick said that the Fairbanks Community Food Bank also collected 133 pounds of food. The garden requested donations of food to celebrate the birthday of Charles Georgeson.

The event is sponsored by the Georgeson Botanical Garden Society, the Georgeson Botanical Garden and the School of Natural Resources and Extension.

A young artist splashes paint on a spinning wheel to create art.

Researcher studies Alaska's resources from afar

Dave Verbyla stands by a downed birch tree on the
UAFcampus. He is studying how freezing rain
affects tree mortality,especially white spruce.

Dave Verbyla has used remote sensing and geographic information systems to study shrinking boreal lakes, the breeding range of trumpeter swans, spruce beetle infestations, and the flammability of aspen and birch stands.

Verbyla, a professor of geographic information systems at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, specializes in analyzing natural resource trends associated with a changing climate. He likens remote sensing to looking at a historical photo series in which one can see how images have changed.

Verbyla said he likes working with GIS because of its capability to analyze and because he’s always been an analytical person, a trait that came from his mother.

“If anything broke, she was the one to figure it out and fix it,” he said.

Verbyla taught himself how to use GIS while earning a doctorate in forest resources at Utah State University in the mid 1980s. The software had been around for a few years, but instructional classes were rare. GIS is a computer system for storing, checking and displaying all types of geographic data.

Compared to aerial photography, which is what he had been using, Verbyla said, GIS was a major advance. Information for his remote sensing research is collected by sensors, usually on satellites or aircraft, that detect energy reflected from Earth. The data is analyzed and mapped with GIS software.
He recently determined the elevation of spring snow lines in mid-May as part of a NASA-funded study with several other scientists that considered why Dall sheep populations have declined more than 20 percent rangewide since 1990. The decline was the worst in the western Brooks Range, where the population had dropped more than 70 percent. 

Dave Verbyla looks at remote sensing data on elevation that is displayed using
ArcGIS mapping software.

Verbyla said the species is thought to be sensitive to spring snow conditions. If the snow line is at a lower elevation during the cold spring weather, sheep may be more susceptible to predators because forage above the snow line is lower quality and covered by snow. Below the snow line, sheep present an easier target for predators.

The professor analyzed the dynamics of the snowpack from 2000 to 2016 during the spring lambing season. He used satellite data to estimate the snow line elevation in 28 mountain areas from British Columbia to the Arctic in Canada and Alaska.

Verbyla said this was possible with the development of a regional remote sensing snow measurement tool, which provided daily images of 500-meter grids that showed whether snow was present.

When researchers compared their data to information from aerial sheep surveys, they found that fewer lambs survived when the snow line elevation was lower, and mortality increased with higher latitudes.

Verbyla, who grew up in central New Jersey, taught GIS at universities in New Hampshire and Idaho before coming to Fairbanks in 1993. A professor with the UAF School of Natural Resources and Extension, he teaches remote sensing applications in natural resources and provides GIS analysis for other researchers.

Todd Brinkman, a wildlife ecologist with UAF's Institute of Arctic Biology, has worked with Verbyla on several projects, including the Dall sheep research and analysis of how a changing environment affects hunter access to fish and game.

“He has a great command of what’s possible with spatial analysis today — and what’s not possible," he said. “I’ve always appreciated his pragmatic approach to things.”

Brinkman said Verbyla is also a willing resource when graduate students hit a roadblock with spatial analysis.

Much of Verbyla’s work has focused on boreal forests. A current project at the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest near Fairbanks looks at how freezing winter rain affects white spruce mortality. He used a remote sensing method that relies on pulsed laser to identify trees in 2004 that were taller than about 100 feet, which, in Fairbanks, typically means white spruce. He studied data from the same one-meter grids 10 years later to determine which trees were missing. He spent two days on the ground confirming tree falls in 30 locations. In each case, he found fallen spruce trees that had been uprooted or their trunks broken.

Freezing rain makes the forest canopy heavier, making spruce trees like this
one  in the Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest more prone to
breaking their trunks.

“The spruce needles get iced up and the forest canopy gets very heavy,” he said. Even a small amount of wind can take the tree down.

Verbyla is looking at whether spruce that grow singly might be more vulnerable than trees growing in a cluster and whether trees at lower elevations are more or less susceptible to falling over. Learning about trees’ susceptibility is important in part because falling trees cause power outages, Verbyla said.

Verbyla is proud of former students who are using GIS for a variety of purposes. One works at Disney World and uses GIS to study traffic patterns. Another is mapping routes for mountain bikers. Others work for natural resource agencies.

While he’s still working on many research projects, Verbyla plans to retire next year and to spend more time with family, including an identical twin who lives in Virginia and is also a forester. He hopes to do more hunting, hiking and canoeing.

“I’m going to enjoy Alaska,” he said.

Birthday Bash and Mud Day to take place June 24

Revelers enjoy a past Mud Day event.

The Georgeson Botanical Garden will combine two popular garden traditions on June 24 with its Birthday Bash and Mud Day.

The event will go from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the garden. From 10 a.m. to noon, the public is invited to enjoy the garden, educational booths, kids’ activities, harp music and birthday cake to celebrate the 167th birthday of Charles Georgeson. The garden’s namesake was an agronomist who founded experiment stations in Alaska  and stayed to conduct research.

From noon to 2 p.m., kids of all ages are invited to romp in the mud pit in the Babula Children’s Garden. The garden hosted Mud Day for several years but the event has been on hiatus for the past two years. Towels and clean clothes to wear afterward are recommended. Participants will be able to rinse with water.

Mud Day participants enjoy the mud pit in 2014.

Educational booths will include information on beekeeping, herbs and peonies, and a potter will demonstrate clay pottery making. Activities will include face painting, origami, dragonfly crafts and other games. The Boreal Charter School, the Fairbanks Children’s Museum and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are leading kids’ activities.

Admission is free but cans of food for the Fairbanks Community Food Bank are requested as a Georgeson birthday gift. The event is sponsored by the Georgeson Botanical Garden Society, the Georgeson Botanical Garden and the UAF School of Natural Resources and Extension.

The garden is located at the farthest west edge of the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm, 117 W. Tanana Drive. For more information, contact Mathew Carrick at 907-474-7222 or email gbgsociety@gmail.com.

Albertson to receive national health award

The National Environmental Health Association will recognize Bethel Cooperative Extension agent Leif Albertson for his work educating the public and agency professionals about the health risks associated with the use of lead rifle ammunition.

Leif Albertson

Albertson will receive the Joe Beck Educational Contribution Award on June 27 at the association’s annual conference in Anaheim, California. Albertson has developed educational materials and given presentations on the lead exposure risks associated with eating large game animals.

“In recent years, we’ve come to understand that lead is toxic at much lower levels than we previously understood,” he said. “This has raised questions about the human health risks of lead rifle ammunition.” 

Lead exposure has been linked to cognitive and developmental delays in children and other health problems. Tests done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that eating venison and other game meat can raise the amount of lead in human bodies by 50 percent.

Albertson noted that because remote Alaskans consume enormous amounts of game meat, they are at particular risk from lead rifle ammunition. Albertson has advocated the use of copper rifle ammunition as a substitutue for traditional lead-core ammunition.

A news release from the association said, “The committee was so impressed by Mr. Albertson's innovative recognition of a lead exposure hazard that was unique to Alaska's population and the educational response to mitigate the hazard … His educational focus impacted hunters, meat consumers, public health professionals and the medical community's lead assessment process.”

The National Environmental Health Association is a professional society for environmental health professionals. Albertson has a master’s degree in public health policy and management from the Harvard School of Public Health. He is the incoming president of the Alaska Environmental Health Association and a past president of the Alaska Public Health Association. He is a health, home and family development agent for the UAF Cooperative Extension Service.

Research Highlight: Developing a red meat industry

Erin Carr examines reindeer carcasses in the mobile processing unit in Savoonga,
where the reindeer program was working on field slaughter protocols.

The Reindeer Research Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks has looked at the best combinations of feed and forage, range management and how the reindeer diet and slaughter methods affect the quality of meat.

Program manager Greg Finstad said that reindeer research over the past 35 years has focused on helping develop a local red meat industry.

“It’s producer-driven research,” he said.

Finstad believes that reindeer production could help address Alaska’s food insecurity and provide an economic boost to tribal entities that sell the meat.

Read more about Finstad's research in a Spring 2018 Agroborealis Research Highlight. Agroborealis is the research publication of the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and the School of Natural Resources and Extension. Downloadable Highlights are published online twice yearly at www.uaf.edu/snre/agroborealis.

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