Resource planning professor Susan Todd to retire

Susan Todd poses with her graduate student, Sam
Adams, and his son, Orin, during a retirement party.

Susan Todd, an associate professor of resource planning, will retire at the end of the year.

Todd has been with the University of Alaska Fairbanks almost 30 years. Her research with the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station has focused on conflict resolution, mediation and public land use planning. She researched methods to involve the public in environmental decisions and facilitated public discussions on resource issues, such as caribou and wolf management and trails development.

Todd coordinated a Peace Corps program at UAF from 2005-2016. Through the program, graduate students studied natural resource management at UAF and served in the Peace Corps. Their master’s projects reflected resource issues in the countries they served. She also coordinated the Coverdell Fellows Program, which provided educational support for returning Peace Corps volunteers who studied natural resources management at UAF.

Todd's interest in international environmental issues led to a Fulbright sabbatical in Namibia during the 2011-2012 year, studying wildlife conservation.

As part of the UAF Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Todd taught natural resource conservation and policy, resource management planning and management, and environmental literature. She recently published two journal articles with her graduate students, one on deforestation in Togo and another on training women to maintain village water supplies in Ghana. She also worked with a student on a book chapter about what variables predict whether a city will be successful implementing sustainability measures.

Before coming to the university, Todd worked for several state and federal agencies, including the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, the Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service. While working for the DNR as a planner in the early 1980s, she realized that conflicts over resource management were frequently not about the data but about different values. For example, agricultural interests might want land cleared to plant, she said, while forestry representatives might want the forest left as it is.

“We argued about values,” she said. The desire to resolve such environmental conflicts inspired her to return to school at the University of Michigan to earn a doctorate in environmental mediation.

Todd doesn’t have any immediate retirement plans, except for a couple months soaking up sun in Tucson and Baja, Mexico. She wants to spend more time reading and dancing, two things she likes to do, but she expects to stay involved in Alaska resource discussions, particularly because of the impacts of climate change.

She also plans to stay connected to the university, remaining as the committee chair for her current graduate students and will serve as the major advisor for a new doctoral student from Mongolia.

Women in Agriculture Conference scheduled for Jan. 25

The Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center and UAF will once again host the Women in Agriculture Conference, on Saturday, Jan. 25. Homer Soil and Water Conservation District will also host at the Kachemak Bay Campus.

The one-day gathering takes place simultaneously at video sites in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana and Washington. Organizers describe the annual event as “an engaging, interactive day full of inspiration, learning and networking with other women farmers.” Men are welcome, too.

The theme for 2020 is “Healthy Farms.” Topics will include developing personal resiliency and mindfulness, and the program will include a panel of local women farmers in each location.

The event starts at 7 a.m. in Alaska. Online registration is available now; the fee is $35 but if you register by Jan. 17, the early bird price is $30. Student registration or registration for 4-H and FFA members is $20. Registration includes a light breakfast, lunch and conference materials.

More details will be available as the conference draws closer. Check back for more agenda and speaker information at this site. Washington State University coordinates the conference.

Holidays at the Farm event set for Dec. 13 in Palmer

A young participant at the 2018 Holidays at
the Farm event shows off the card he wrote
to an overseas soldier. Jessica Bird photo

The Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center in Palmer will host a Holidays at the Farm open house from 4-6 p.m. on Dec. 13.

Caroling begins at 5:15 p.m. and a tree lighting at 5:30 p.m. Games and activities for kids will include pin the nose on Olaf, a candy cane hunt, coloring pages, cookie decorating, tractor pictures, a photo booth, ornament making and even a visit by Rudolph, weather permitting. Cooperative Extension agents and farm staff will be on hand to answer questions.

Christmas cookies and hot chocolate will be served. The farm is located at 1509 S. Georgeson Drive. See more about the event. For more information, call the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service at 907-745-3360.

OneTree Alaska selling holiday birch treats and luminaria

OneTree is selling syrups of different sizes, caramels and decorated birch
sticks. Photo by Homyna Curiel

OneTree Alaska is once again selling birch syrup, caramels, birch syrup sticks and ice luminaria to help support its forest education outreach and research program.

Volunteers and staff will sell the birch sweets and luminaria from 5-7 p.m. weekdays and from 11 a.m. -4 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 22. A 4-ounce bag of 30-plus caramels sells for $16, syrup ranges from $12 to $48 and ice luminaria made in 3-gallon buckets are $10 each. Three decorated birch sticks sell for $7.50. The sticks can serve as edible ornaments.

OneTree is in the Lola Tilly Commons, on the side facing the Patty Center. The office can be reached through the west and east entrances.

The birch products are made from sap collected this spring by 55 households and classrooms as part of the birch sap cooperative coordinated by OneTree. Participants get birch syrup or other products, based on the amount of sap they provide.

Proceeds support the OneTree program, which is affiliated with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. The program provides forest education to students, and conducts research on birch sap processing methods and on the conditions that lead to when sap flow begins and peaks. It also works with individuals interested in small-scale production of birch syrup or birch sap products.

OneTree coordinator Jan Dawe is inspired by maple research facilities at Cornell University and in Vermont that support their research through sales of maple syrup products.

Dawe is seeking community volunteers who wish to work from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 14 and Dec. 21, to wrap and bag caramels and decorate birch syrup sticks. For more information or to volunteer, contact Dawe at 474-5907.

OneTree has also been recently accepted as a nonprofit for the Fred Meyer Community Rewards program.

Nov. 22 workshop on variety trials to include taste tests

Glenna Gannon prepares to harvest Brussels sprouts grown
for the 2019 variety trials.

A Nov. 22 workshop on the Georgeson Botanical Garden vegetable variety trials will include taste tests of beet and carrot varieties.

Glenna Gannon, the research coordinator for the variety trials, will talk about the trials, the vegetables that were tested, results and best practices for growing these vegetables. The workshop will run from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in Room 154 of the University Park Building, 1000 University Ave.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension will host the free workshop. Participants are asked to sign up at http://bit.ly/2QAi1Ha. The Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station has conducted the trials the past three summers in Fairbanks and at the Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center.

Invasive species workshop comes to Fairbanks

The Alaska Invasive Species Workshop, Oct. 22-24 in Fairbanks, will highlight early detection and prevention of invasive species.

Although the presence of winter moose tick has not been confirmed
yet in Alaska, it afflicts mule deer in the Yukon, and some mule
deer have migrated to the Interior. A presentation about the risk
of ticks and tick-borne pathogens will take place Thursday, Oct. 24
at the workshop. iStock photo

The annual event kicks off with a public lecture at 6 p.m. tonight at the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center. Katherine Wyman-Grothem, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Minnesota, will talk about how to analyze the risk of aquatic invasive species when deciding where to direct prevention efforts. Wyman-Grothem's experience is with the Great Lakes region, which has had more than 100 invasive species.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service and the Alaska Invasive Species Partnership will host the workshop at Pike’s Waterfront Lodge, 1850 Hoselton Drive.

Coordinator Gino Graziano said the workshop helps coordinate invasive species management efforts and makes individuals or agencies aware of new concerns, particularly those that could cause economic or environmental damage.

One relatively new concern is the spread of nonnative ticks and tick-borne pathogens. A researcher from the University of Alaska Anchorage will discuss which ticks are here and which ones have pathogens. The information comes from a surveillance project conducted by UAA, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Department of Environmental Conservation.

“There is real concern that moose winter tick is up here,” Graziano said.

Although it has not been spotted in Alaska, Graziano said the tick is present among mule deer in the Yukon, and some deer have migrated to the Interior. The ticks suck substantial amounts of blood and make animals scratch, which causes damage to their insulating winter coats.

Several workshop presentations concern the detection and management of elodea, an invasive aquatic species that aggressively crowds out native species and is difficult to control. Graziano said the plant can grow into places where salmon spawn and present navigation risks to boats and planes.

Other presentations will cover prevention efforts, including watercraft and seaplane inspections, public outreach and wildland fire training. Reports will describe management efforts to control northern pike in Shell Lake and Prunus padus, a type of chokecherry tree that has spread in Fairbanks, Anchorage and other communities.

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

Fairbanks Experiment Farm sees longer growing season

Rick Thoman has been closely following the lenthening growing season in the Interior and across Alaska.

Based on 109 years of weather information recorded at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm, Thoman said this past summer was the farm's third-longest growing season. Its weather station recorded 129 frost-free days. The fall frost arrived on Sept. 22.

Thoman is a climate scientist with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

As Thoman's graph indicates, the growing season at the farm has lengthened by three weeks over the past 49 years, from 1970 to 2019. Seven of the 10 longest growing seasons have occurred since 1990 and the 10 shortest seasons were before 1970.

This past summer also recorded the second highest May-September growing degree day total (GDD), a measure of "accumulated warmth." Some crops require a specific total in order to mature. The growing degree day total in 2004 was slightly higher than in 2019.

Thoman said another UAF scientist is looking at whether changes in accumulated warmth are actually more significant than changes in the growing season length. The issue was referenced in a publication that Thoman and John Walsh published in August, "Alaska's Changing Environment."

UAF reindeer herd moves to Delta Junction, LARS

A newborn calf stays close to her mother at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm
this April. UAF photo by J.R. Ancheta

The reindeer research herd at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm has moved to a bison and reindeer farm near Delta Junction.

Thirty-five of the reindeer were transferred two weeks ago, and two reindeer used for outreach, Roger and Olivia, moved Friday to the Large Animal Research Station near the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs, which owns the animals, approved the transfer. The university’s Reindeer Research Program has maintained a herd at UAF since 1997 for research on range management, nutrition and feed rations and for educational outreach.

Roberto Burgess, left, and Steve Hjelm of Stevens
Village look on as Greg Finstad talks about weighing and
handling the reindeer during a 2016 animal husbandry
workshop. Erin Carr and George Aguiar help hold
the reindeer.

Milan Shipka, the director of the UAF Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, said the transfer reflects a shift in program goals, to focus more on outreach and developing range and business plans for communities interested in establishing a reindeer herd for meat production.

The Delta Junction bison and reindeer farm is owned by the Stevens Village Tribal Council, which has been working with the reindeer program for five years. Representatives have attended reindeer husbandry workshops at UAF and have been developing a herd on the 2,000-acre farm.

“This was an opportunity to help an Alaska Native entity develop a red meat industry,” Shipka said. “This has the potential to be a sizable Native-owned operation on the road system.”

Being on the road system allows for a USDA-inspected slaughter and greatly improves market opportunities, Shipka said. The farm will get a higher price for the reindeer meat because it will be able to sell USDA-inspected meat.

The reindeer were moved to Delta Junction in enclosed trailers. Greg Finstad, the reindeer program manager, said the farm will be a good location for the reindeer because of its access to the road system and to inexpensive reindeer feed, including hay, barley and oats.

Finstad said said 10 of the reindeer going to the farm will eventually be transferred to the family-owned Midnite Sun Ranch near Nome.
He said the program is working on a memorandum of agreement with the Tanana Chiefs Conference to continue using the research herd for animal husbandry outreach and research as needed.

Finstad said his program is working with other Yukon River communities, and reindeer herders on the Seward Peninsula, and St. Paul and Saint Lawrence islands on developing reindeer production and using hygienic slaughter practices to increase the value of the meat they sell. The program and will continue to provide husbandry and meat production training.

“We still have a lot of work to do,” he said.

AFES research looks for prime time to harvest firewood

Jessie Young-Robertson is researching when trees have the lowest moisture
content, and how harvesting them at the right point could shorten the drying
time. UAF photo by J.R. Ancheta

While studying how trees take up snowmelt and rainwater, Jessie Young-Robertson noticed dramatic seasonal variations in the water content in the trees, particularly in deciduous trees like birch and aspen.

Most of her research was undertaken between March and September but last year, she extended her research through the winter —and made a surprising discovery.

This three-pronged device measures water content in trees.
UAF photo by J.R. Ancheta

Young-Robertson, a forest ecologist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said that scientists believed that trees dried down immediately after losing their leaves. Sensors in birch trees showed, surprisingly, that the trees dumped 70 percent of their water content into the soil in a 24-hour period in late October. The water dump correlated closely with a drop in temperatures. It followed one day in which temperatures were below freezing.

She knew that trees dropped moisture in the fall. “The surprise was how much and how fast,” she said.

The finding could be significant because fall is a popular time to harvest firewood. Depending on the when the trees are harvested in the fall, the wood could be very wet or much drier.

Further research is needed, but she believes that the information being collected may hold a key to reducing wintertime air pollution in Fairbanks caused by residents burning green firewood.

“You can let the trees do a lot of the work of drying the wood for you,” she said.

A birch tree in the Caribou-Poker Creeks Research
Watershed displays a bolted device on the left-hand side that
measures changes in tree girth and a white rectangular device
encloses a water content sensor. The foil-like thermal shield
covers a sap flux sensor that measures transpiration. Photo
by Jessie Young-Robertson

Young-Robertson has studied water uptake in plants for more than 10 years. As part of a National Science Foundation grant, she studied water uptake in several species of trees from March to September for three years. She discovered that deciduous trees have low water content during winter and early spring, become saturated when the snow melts, and lose 20 percent of their water content when they leaf out. Trees refilled their water supply through summer rainfall.

She is trying to pinpoint the time when the moisture content is the lowest and the environmental factors that influence this. If people harvested firewood at the right time, she thinks it would shorten the amount of time needed to season it and reduce the PM2.5 emissions linked to burning wet wood.

The technology Young-Robertson used to measure the water content in trees has evolved since she started her research in the woods northeast of Fairbanks.

She used to walk or ski to her research plots in the Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed, off the Steese Highway. She connected a sensor and her laptop to rods attached to the tree to measure its water content.  Sometimes electricity conducted by the tree shorted out her sensor, or bands measuring tree girth fell down when the trees shed water. The process is now automated and the devices she uses are more reliable.

Young-Robertson will continue to monitor plots in the research area, but will also establish and follow another plot this fall near Smith Lake. It will include birch, aspen and spruce, collecting data on air temperature, soil temperature, water content and tree girth.

One reason for placing the plot near UAF is that she hopes to stream the data to a website so people can track ongoing conditions and watch for the best time to harvest.

Young-Robertson, a researcher for the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, will expand the project with additional grant money expected this fall. She hopes to increase the number of plots at the research watershed and to add a plot on Fort Wainwright so she can monitor trees in various conditions.

Jessie Young-Robertson demonstrates how a device measures
water content. UAF photo by J.R. Ancheta

She will also hopes to conduct drying experiments with birch and spruce, the two most popular choices for firewood. The firewood would be harvested at different levels of moisture content.  She will try to determine the difference in drying times needed to reduce the water content to 20 percent or lower, the standard required by the state and the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

Young-Robertson has many interests besides ecohydrology. She is an artist who paints with vivid acrylic colors and creates art with a digital drawing pad. She is interested in the connections between science and storytelling. She recorded a series of conversations with scientists and others as part of a collaboration with StoryCorps, which airs stories on National Public Radio. She also told a story about a disastrous solo hike on Kesugi Ridge as part of the Dark Winter Nights storytelling series. She hails originally from New Mexico, where her father worked as a research physicist.

She likes her work with trees and their mysteries. She discovered they conduct electricity and they even pick up radio stations. Trees conduct sound when they’re full of water, she said. She could pick it up with specialized sensors that measure changes in pressure that she converted to sound.

“I feel like at every turn, we find something new,” she said.

ASRA summer camp focuses on Alaska foods

Call it a food finale or a dessert smackdown. High schoolers with the Alaska Summer Research Academy group on Alaska foods prepared desserts made solely with local ingredients and asked the archaeology group to choose its favorite.

Sable Scotten of Galena prepares to bake king salmon as Glenna Gannon looks
on.

The taste test lineup was enticing: serviceberry/blueberry pie with a barley flour crust, sourdough barley rolls with a raspberry filling and raspberry/strawberry sorbet topped with edible wildflowers and blueberry gummies made from scratch. The gummy gelatin was rendered from caribou bones.

Heidi Rader, who coordinates the two-week UAF camp, told the high school judges to taste everything before filling out the judging forms. She also asked for comments as they sampled the fare, while seated at a picnic table on lower campus.

“The bread was good. It was just a tad bit dry,” one volunteered.

Zoe McIntyre poses with her serviceberry pie.

After tasting the sorbet, another student said, “I can’t be the mean judge on this.”

“The pie’s really good,” one judge said. “It’s a bit tangy I guess.”

It was a blind tasting. The tasters did not know who prepared what, and the chefs stood by and listened to the feedback.

Cooking desserts is just one of many activities for participants in the camp module called, “What’s for Dinner? Why We Eat What We Eat in Alaska and What it Means for Our Health.” Participants toured the Georgeson Botanical Garden, learned about the vegetable variety trials there, and about food policy, healthy diets and career opportunities in agriculture. They also foraged for wild foods.

“It’s all about food,” said Rader, a tribes Extension educator who ran the camp with help of graduate students Glenna Gannon and Sheri Coke, and UAF Professor Liz Hodges Snyder.

Shea Gunter works on raspberry
rolls.

Students spent a fair amount of time in the commercial kitchen at the Extension state office building, preparing kale salad, sautéing and baking salmon, making cauliflower muffins and cake, and other Alaska foods. They also canned jam with serviceberries and raspberries. The camp was focused on cooking healthy and with vegetables.

Zoe McIntyre, the architect of the serviceberry pie, said she signed up for the camp because she was interested in Alaska foods. She particularly liked tasting her first serviceberries.

Shea Gunter, who will be a high school sophomore this fall in Tetlin, said, “I really liked the baking.”

The winning dessert was the raspberry/strawberry or “strawsberry” sorbet made by Sable Scotten of Galena. The science academy ends on Friday.

The camp emphasized healthy eating and vegetables.

Tickets on sale for Georgeson Wine and Peonies event

The Georgeson Botanical Garden will pair wine and peonies for its annual fund-raising gala on Friday, July 26.

Wine and Peonies will run from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the UAF botanical garden. The event will feature peonies, wine from New Zealand and other locations and piano music by Victoria Salmon. Each participant will receive wine, hors d’oeuvres, a bouquet of fresh-cut peonies and a garden tour.

Garden program coordinator Mathew Carrick describes the event as an elegant evening that celebrates the garden’s peony connection with New Zealand. A couple from New Zealand, who toured the garden in 2004, encouraged horticulturist Pat Holloway to help develop a peony industry in Alaska because of the opportune time that peonies bloom here. Holloway had started variety trials at the garden three years earlier. The couple also hosted several Alaska growers who wanted to learn more about growing peonies.

The Georgeson Botanical Garden Society hosts the gala to support operations of the garden. Tickets are available at http://bit.ly/peonygala. They are $40 when purchased by 5 p.m. July 19 or $50 when purchased later and at the door. Attendees must be 21 or older.

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

Peonies blooming at Georgeson Botanical Garden

The Hermione variety of peony can be seen at the Georgeson.

The UAF Georgeson Botanical Garden invites the public to enjoy its peonies in full bloom.

The garden will host Peonies in Bloom July 1-12, an opportunity for visitors to enjoy the big, showy “wedding flower” at the height of its bloom. The flowers emerge from buds by mid- to late June in Fairbanks.

The garden has about 150 varieties of peonies in a rainbow of colors, including white, pink, yellow and red. Most were planted as part of research and variety trials undertaken at the garden, beginning in 2001. The research has helped contribute to a successful industry and horticultural export for Alaska.

The garden is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Labor Day weekend. Admission is $5. For more information, contact Mathew Carrick at 474-7222 or mtcarrick@alaska.edu.

Bash/Mud Day draws a good crowd

Mud was a big attraction at the Birthday Bash and
Mud Day.

Despite occasional rain drizzles, the Georgeson Birthday Bash and Mud Day attracted than 300 visitors Sunday to the Georgeson Botanical Garden.

People enjoyed the music, garden walks, birthday cake and watching kids cavort in the mud pit. Activities for young visitors included face painting, sculpting with clay, creating bubbles and mud pies, painting with dirt, walking the shrub maze and handling composting worms. Kids especially favored the mud holes. A lengthy line formed for the opportunity to slide on plastic and splash into a watery mud pit.

A young girl, waiting for her turn, said, expectantly: “It’s gross. I know it’s going to be gross.”

Kids in an adjacent mud hole flung mud on each other and created mud pies.

Admiring visitors snapped photos of the garden’s flowers, including multiple varieties of peonies, which are beginning to bloom.

The event celebrates summer in the garden and the 168th birthday of Charles Georgeson, an agronomist who founded experiment stations in Alaska.

Mud Day is sponsored by the garden, the Georgeson Botanical Garden Society and the UAF School of Natural Resources and Extension. The garden is open through Labor Day weekend, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Admission is $5. Tours begin Fridays at 2 p.m. and meet at the entrance kiosk.

A young artist shows off the artwork he created on
a paint wheel.

Face painting artistry at work.

Birthday Bash and Mud Day coming to Georgeson

A reveler celebrates in the mud pit last year.

The Georgeson Birthday Bash and Mud Day will take place June 23 in the UAF Georgeson Botanical Garden.

The event will include kids' activities, live music and, of course, a giant mud pit for romping in. Activities will include making mud pies and clay sculptures, painting with dirt, storytime, a spinning color wheel, bubbles and information booths. The public is also invited to enjoy the garden and birthday cake to celebrate its namesake, Charles Georgeson.

Information booths and activities will be available from noon to 2 p.m., and the mud pit will be open from 1 to 3 p.m. Admission is $5 per family.

The garden started hosting Mud Day in 2013, and the mud pit remains a big draw, according to Mathew Carrick, the garden’s program coordinator.

“Kids find it so fun,” he said.

More than 600 people attended last year’s event, which combined Mud Day with a birthday celebration for Georgeson, an agronomist who founded experiment stations in Alaska.

Fairbanks artist Heidi Morel and several community organizations, including the Fairbanks Children’s Museum and the Interior Alaska Food Network, will provide activities. The Fairbanks Community Food Bank will collect food donations. The Georgeson Botanical Garden Society, the Georgeson Botanical Garden and the UAF School of Natural Resources and Extension sponsor the event.

Water will be available for cleaning off, and towels are recommended. The garden is located at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm, 117 W. Tanana Drive. To help alleviate parking congestion, a shuttle will run from the Nenana parking lot, across Tanana Loop from the Patty Gym, from 11:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. For more information, contact Carrick at 907-474-7222 or email gbgsociety@gmail.com.

More mud pit action at the 2018 Georgeson Birthday Bash.

Music in the Garden series begins May 23 at Georgeson

A popular musical tradition will continue this summer at the Georgeson Botanical Garden. The Music in the Garden series kicks off Thursday.

The band Haifa performs as part of the Music in the Garden series.
UAF photo by J.R. Ancheta

Concerts begin at 7 p.m. on Thursdays most weeks until Aug. 9. Spectators are welcome to bring a blanket and picnic, but are asked to leave pets at home. Food and drinks are available from Chartwell's Campus Dining. Concerts are free, but the garden will accept donations.

Parking at the garden is limited but is available on UAF’s West Ridge. A short walking path to the garden, located at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm, begins at the overlook.

This summer’s Music in the Garden schedule includes:

May 23 — Sourdough Rizers
May 30 — Dry Cabin String Band
June 6 — O Tallulah
June 13 — Cold Steel Drums
June 20 — Rock Bottom Stompers
June 27 — Headbolt Heaters
July 11 — Marc Brown and The Blues Crew
July 18 — Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival American roots ensemble
July 25 — Red Hackle Pipe Band
Aug. 1 — Fairbanks Community Jazz Band
Aug. 8 — E.T. Barnette String Band

Music in the Garden is sponsored by UAF Summer Sessions and Lifelong Learning, with support from the University of Alaska College Savings Plan, Design Alaska, Sound Reinforcement Specialists and Georgeson Botanical Garden. For more information, visit www.uaf.edu/summer/events or call 907-474-7021.
Jeff Richardson of University Relations provided the information for the story.

Agricultural educators conference hosted in Fairbanks

A conference for Western agricultural educators is planned from May 20-24 at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.

 The Alaska FFA Association and the Alaska Association of Agriculture and Natural Resource Educators will host the gathering. Kevin Fochs, the director of the Alaska FFA program, said about 100 participants are expected at the regional conference for the National Association of Agricultural Educators. Participants will include agricultural and natural resource teachers and FFA advisors from 11 Western states and Alaska. The conference will include tours, workshops and business meetings.

Workshops will take place at UAF and participants will tour several locations in the Fairbanks area, including the permafrost tunnel, the University of Alaska Museum of the North, Georgeson Botanical Garden and reindeer operations, Chena Hot Springs and Arctic Sun Peonies. FFA is a youth program affiliated with the UAF Cooperative Extension Service.

UAF Commencement Saturday includes 20 SNRE grads

At Saturday’s UAF commencement, 13 bachelor’s and seven master’s degrees were granted to students with the School of Natural Resources and Extension.

Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources Management

From left, SNRE graduates included Kendrick Hautala, Robert Scott,
Shannon Gustafson, Trevor Schoening, Gwendolyn Quigley and master's
degree recipient Bryant Wright.

Hannah Christian
Kama McGregor Gale
Cheyenne Greenside
Shannon Gustafson
Kendrick Hautala
Annie Looman
Breanna McGuire
Timi Miner
Kori Phoenix
Gwendolyn Quigley
Trevor Schoening
Robert Scott
Richard Sheridan

Master of Science in Natural Resources Management
Eric Geisler
Stephen Harvey
Joshua Paul

Faculty participating in the UAF graduation included, from left, Meriam Karlsson,
Susan Todd, Pete Fix, Natalie Thomas, Mingchu Zhang and David Valentine.

Maija Wehmas

Master of Natural Resources Management
Lori Beraha
Cory Cole
Nina Olivier

Students honor Cathy Donaldson as outstanding staff

Cathy Donaldson

The UAF student government organization chose Cathy Donaldson for its Staff of the Year Award.

Donaldson is the academic and research staff member for the School of Natural Resources and Extension. She helps students resolve issues, such as finding someone to sign paperwork, proctoring tests, connecting them with an advisor or working through many other issues. She has also filled in as a recruiter at various events and works with UAF recruiters on answering questions about the natural resources and environment programs.

Sierra von Hafften nominated Donaldson for the award from the Associated Students of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. A student senator, von Hafften said she thought of Donaldson because the award is for someone who makes a difference in students’ lives.

“She is extremely helpful and willing to work with students,” she said. Von Hafften said she has learning disabilities and Donaldson has worked with her on exams and has proctored exams for other students who miss exams because of illness.

Von Hafften is from Anchorage and expects to graduate a year from now. She said she switched from geological engineering to the natural resources and the environment major, in part, because of the helpfulness of faculty and of Donaldson.

“She is really nice and very welcoming,” she said. “It’s a very welcoming department.”

Sara Church, who is finishing up her junior year, said Donaldson did a great job communicating with students and helping them get paperwork together for the NRM 290 field trip she took last year. Donaldson regularly forwards job and internship opportunities to students, and Church applied for one of those internships and received it. The ongoing internship is with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. Donaldson also proctored exams for two distance-delivered natural resources management classes she took that were taught from Palmer by former Professor Norm Harris.

Donaldson said she is humbled by the award because she knows other great staff at UAF. She enjoys helping students and working with the school’s faculty. “Everybody cares about what’s best for the students,” she said.

Donaldson has been with the school since January of 2016. She has a master’s degree in water resources from University of California Davis and worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for several years as a wildlife biologist in the endangered species area.

She was recognized at the student awards breakfast on April 27.

Vegetable variety trials research highlight published

Find out what’s happening with the UAF vegetable variety trials in the newest Agroborealis Research Highlight.

Project director Heidi Rader coordinated limited trials at the Georgeson Botanical Garden in 2017, but the trials expanded in 2018 with 30 varieties of beets, carrots and celery. Varieties of beans, Brussels sprouts, corn and watermelon were also evaluated for further testing.

The trials will expand to the Matanuska Experiment Farm in Palmer this year. Read about what the trials evaluated and where to find detailed results.

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.

If you want to like to get an email when future research highlights are published, please subscribe here.

Community agriculture celebrated May 5 at Georgeson

The public is invited to celebrate Alaska agriculture May 5 at the Georgeson Botanical Garden.

The Interior Alaska Food Network and the botanical garden will host Alaska Agriculture Day 2019 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with free family activities and educational booths representing more than 25 community groups and organizations.

Activities will include painting a plant pot, barley toss, face painting, garden tours, planting a seed starter for sunflowers or marigolds, and several games, such as ladybug tic-tac-toe. The Alaska OneTree Program will demonstrate how to make birch syrup, and participants may learn about beekeeping, conservation, sustainability and growing herbs. There will also be swallow nests from the Alaska Songbird Institute and farm equipment.

A new plaza will be dedicated at 1 p.m. to James Drew, former dean of the UAF School of Agriculture and Land Resources Management, a predecessor to the UAF School of Natural Resources and Extension.

One of the event organizers, Britanny Balthaser, said the Interior Alaska Food Network is a coalition of individuals from the Interior who work to improve the local food system. Hosting the event brings attention to the importance of local agriculture and the agriculture we have, she said. The network is a regional affiliate of the Alaska Food Policy Council.

The garden is located at 117 W. Tanana Drive, at the university’s Fairbanks Experiment Farm. For more information, contact Balthaser at 907-474-6754 or interioralaskafoodnetwork@gmail.com.

First reindeer calves born at Fairbanks Experiment Farm

The third reindeer calf hangs close to its mother, Lola, at the Fairbanks
Experiment Farm on Monday. UAF photo by J.R. Ancheta

See the YouTube video.

The first reindeer calves of 2019 arrived at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm over the weekend.

Male and female calves were born late Friday night and the third reindeer calf, a female, arrived Saturday morning at 5 a.m.

“We found it Saturday morning when we came in to feed,” said reindeer caretaker Erin Carr.

Workers discovered two additional calves this morning. On Monday afternoon, the newest calf and her mother, Lola, rested in the pen closest to the barn, on the uphill side of West Tanana Drive. Visitors snapped photos of the gangly calf through the fence as it sniffed around the grassy field, nursed and stayed close to its mother.

The calf, who will be named this fall, weighed 13.5 pounds. Carr said the calves usually stand for the first time within an hour of being born.

Altogether, a dozen calves are expected this spring the farm. The Reindeer Research Program herd now includes 33 adults and five calves. The program conducts research on nutrition, animal health, meat quality and range management in support of the reindeer industry.

As is tradition, schoolchildren are encouraged to submit possible names for the calves, which are named in July or August, after they are weaned. Children may submit names on the Reindeer Research Program website at http://reindeer.salrm.uaf.edu/index.php. Names chosen last year, included Zac Effron, Tater Tot, Pretzel and Hope. Reindeer have also been born this spring at the university’s Large Animal Research Station.

UAF graduate students to provide research sampler

Graduate students in biology, fisheries and natural resource management invite the public to the UAF Murie Auditorium April 13 to learn about their ongoing research.

Enjoying Life at the Extremes: Wildfires, Frigid Water and Outdoor Recreation is described as a sampler of research from UAF graduate students. Scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon, the event will feature 10-minute presentations by four students and a panel discussion on their research on a variety of topics, from molecular biology to land use decisions.

The presenters include Kimberly Diamond, who graduated from the School of Natural Resources and Extension in 2018 and is pursuing a master’s in natural resources and environment. The other students are doctoral students Elizabeth Hinkle of the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences and Anna Rox of the College of Natural Science and Mathematics and master’s student Donald Arthur of the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.

The students are enrolled in a course focused on effectively communicating science to the public and Diamond said the event will offer students a unique opportunity to apply skills from the course and to engage with the public about their research topics. The class is taught by Associate Professor Anne Beaudreau.

Diamond’s presentation is called “Feng Shui: Can it be used for outdoor recreation management?" She said she is using feng shui as an analogy to help explain an outdoor recreation management framework that is relatively new to the Bureau of Land Management. She encountered the Chinese concept of “feng shui” in an interior design context. According to feng shui, the energy, or chi, of the environment can be balanced and cultivated through the placement of items in that space. She said she is working with Professor Pete Fix to research how the recreational setting affects the long-term outcomes of recreation.

All are welcome to attend and ask questions. Refreshments will be available in the lobby after the event.

SNRE names outstanding student for 2018-2019

Trevor Schoening

The School of Natural Resources and Extension has named Trevor Schoening its outstanding student.

Many natural resources management students discover the degree after signing up for a different major and switching after taking a few classes they like. No so with Trevor, who started college at UAF as a NRM major because he knew he wanted to get a job in an outdoors-related area.

He didn’t have to graduate before experiencing that. He worked for the U.S. Forest Service in Sitka for three summers, maintaining trails and public use cabins. During the past two semesters, he has worked as a student worker, essentially a farm hand for the Reindeer Research Program, mixing reindeer feed and feeding them, cleaning pens and weighing animals.

Schoening, who is from Sitka, says he has enjoyed the variety of classes he has taken, particularly the introductory NRM class from Susan Todd, a soils class with Mingchu Zhang and geographic information systems (GIS) classes with Dave Verbyla.  Another highlight was the NRM 290 field trip around Alaska with Pete Fix.

“That was an awesome 10 days,” he said. He especially liked seeing farms and  different regions of Alaska on the road tour and meeting professionals who work in the natural resources management area.

Skiing near Thompson Pass.

He has been impressed with faculty, many of whom are involved with outdoor activities and the community. They have also been pretty open to students and willing to lend assistance on projects, he said. Pete Fix helped him with his URSA project last year, in which he inventoried vegetable farmers around the state.

Schoening is not sure what his next step will be, but he wants to spend a summer in the Interior and work for a time while he considers graduate school.

Meriam Karlsson, who is his academic advisor, said Schoening is an excellent student who is interested in everything he studies, which made it challenging for him to choose a minor. He settled on GIS, which is used in many natural resource management jobs. She noted that he has worked on projects in several natural resources management areas, including food security, forestry and GIS.

His hobbies include backcountry and downhill skiing, hiking, travel and camping. Schoening will be honored at an awards breakfast on April 20.

Trevor Schoening mills a sill for a bridge on a U.S. Forest
Service trail rerouting project near Sitka.

 

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OneTree Alaska to host birch sap cooperative meeting

OneTree Alaska will host a meeting to organize its birch sap cooperative Friday, March 15, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Nicole Dunham pours birch sap collected on the UAF
campus into another bucket. UAF photo by Todd Paris

Program lead Jan Dawe and OneTree staff will explain how to collect sap and how the cooperative works, and UAF climate researcher Rick Thoman will talk about how to predict green-up.

The meeting will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the OneTree STEAM studio in the old Lola Tilly Commons kitchen. Buckets, taps, and a limited amount of tubing may be checked out at the meeting or from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 16.

This is the third year for the cooperative. Once the birch sap starts flowing in the Interior— usually in mid-April — volunteers collect and bring it to OneTree to be processed. The sap is used in OneTree’s sap processing research and to raise money to support its operations. Sap collectors receive 20 percent of the syrup in exchange for their efforts, a sweet reward. Last year, more than 50 individuals and classrooms from Salcha to Two Rivers collected 4,500 gallons of birch sap.

Although the ratio varies for year to year, Dawe said it takes about 110 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. This year the program will experiment with vacuum pressure methods that will allow the processing crew to reduce the heat used.

The program has birch caramels and birch syrup available for sale. UAF’s birch sap work is modeled on successful maple research programs at the University of Vermont and Cornell University.

OneTree Alaska is an educational and research program affiliated with the UAF School of Natural Resources and Extension and is supported in part by the Alaska Center for Energy and Power. For more information, contact Dawe at jan.dawe@alaska.edu or OneTree at 907-474-5517.

Delta Farm Form set for March 2 in Delta Junction

A farmer drives a windrower near Delta Junction. Edwin Remsberg photo

The 47th annual Delta Farm Forum will take place March 2 in Delta Junction.

The forum features the latest agricultural news, recommendations and research. It’s also a community event. Milan Shipka, the acting director of the UAF School of Natural Resources and Extension, will welcome participants at 9 a.m. and the forum will run until about 4:30 p.m. in the Delta High School small gym.

Topics will include the livestock industry, the Alaska Farmers Co-op new seed-cleaning service, reindeer and red meat production, a new Fairbanks fiber mill, produce safety and non-timber forest products permits.

Dr. Robert Gerlach, the state veterinarian, will talk about Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae, or M. ovi, a respiratory pathogen that affects domestic and wild sheep, goats and musk ox. Gerlach will provide background on the pathogen and talk about how Alaska’s situation is different than the Lower 48, where a strain of the pathogen has caused disease and death in bighorn sheep. He will discuss research results and discuss options the state and livestock producers have to mitigate the threat of pathogen transfer between livestock and wildlife.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game says the pathogen has been detected in a small number of Dall sheep and mountain goats, in healthy moose and caribou in Alaska and in a small number of domestic sheep and goats, which did not show signs of illness.

See the full schedule for the forum. The University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, the Salcha-Delta Soil and Water Conservation District and the Partners for Progress in Delta, Inc. co-sponsor the forum.  For more information, contact Delta Extension at 907-895-4215 or at pnkaspari@alaska.edu, or call the conservation district at 907-895-6279.