April 2024 Outlook
Note from Jodie
As the director of the Institute of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Extension, I have the privilege of interacting with our researchers, faculty, and Extension professionals every day. I hear their stories and ideas about how they are working to improve the lives of Alaskans. This is the best part of my job: Listening to folks share their great work with me feeds my soul. Over the past several months, we have been working to improve our efforts to communicate these stories to you.
We continue to strive to make access to information about our work more accessible. While we look forward to a busy summer in the field, we are already working on strategies to make sure the results of that field work reach the people who need it. In the coming months, keep an eye out for improvements to our Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Station website as we develop more in-depth content on our facilities, our current work, and our people.
On May 16, we hope you can join us on the West Ridge of UAF鈥檚 Troth Yeddha鈥 campus for the Arctic Research Open House. We will join other research units in welcoming the public for hands-on demonstrations and good conversations about our current research.
Later in the summer, we will reinvigorate our traditional Field Days at each of our experiment station farms. On Jul 30, 2024, you can find us at the 海角论坛 Experiment Farm on the UAF Troth Yeddha鈥 campus and on Aug 1, 2024, we will host a field day at our Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center in Palmer. Both of these events will be open to the public and will be particularly geared toward producers and growers in Alaska communities, who will have a chance to ask questions and engage in discussions with our researchers.
We are looking forward to the opportunity to share our story with you and hear from you about what needs to be done as we move forward. Enjoy the warming sunshine, the shifting browns to greens, and support local when you can!
Reindeer meat production class in Nome
Jackie Hrabok led a 35-hour two-credit reindeer meat production class in Nome, HLRM F160 Reindeer Meat Production on March 27-April 2.
The class consisted of 15 hours of lessons in meat chemistry, slaughterhouse design, and commercial USDA regulations for harvesting. These lessons were put to use in 17 hours of hands-on butchering, grinding meat, and making burgers and reindeer jerky.
Students made 122 portions of vacuum-packed reindeer jerky and distributed them at the WAISC Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference in Nome. A USDA Indigenous Meat Production grant of the Drumbeats Alaska Consortium High Latitude Range Management program sponsored student travel, equipment, supplies and material, and meat studio classroom renovations.
Jackie said it was the first time she had taught this class in English. Previous classes were in Finnish at the European Union-sanctioned slaughterhouse in Toivoniemi, Finland.
"Teamwork among Mother Earth, herders, Bering Air, colleagues, an emotional support dog, Amazon Prime shipping, and No. 1 students supported this goodness, not to mention the generous USDA funding," she said.
Enrollment jumps for edX GIS courses
Santosh Panda, associate professor of Geographic Information Systems, developed a series of in 2021 on the edX platform, which reach thousands of students annually in 141 countries.
This spring, Andhra Pradesh, one of the states in India, signed for its universities to access the edX enterprise catalog. Because of this agreement, Panda said he鈥檚 seeing a dramatic increase in enrollment. One of the courses, for instance, had 2,000 enrollments in three weeks, which is 60% of the total yearly enrollment in previous years. The EdX platform was created at Harvard and MIT, and offers free classes, with the option to pay for certification, he said.
GIS is a fast-growing field with dozens of practical applications, Panda said. It uses satellite images to map features on the ground such as forests and urban areas, leveraging the power of computers and geographic science to find answers to any kind of problem that involves location.
鈥淚t started with natural resources and evolved with time,鈥 Panda said. 鈥淣ow it鈥檚 being used in geosciences, biology, infrastructure development, city planning, you name it. Where to put a business, where to put a hospital, find the best route to put a railroad, all these things are done in GIS because it offers an efficient solution without having to use humans on the ground."
Citizen science project tracks slugs as they slither north
It鈥檚 never fun to walk into your garden on a sunny 海角论坛 summer day only to find cutworms have sliced your broccoli off at soil level, voles have left tiny tooth marks in your carrots or, worst of all, a moose has chomped on what was a giant cabbage.
These are common garden invaders in Interior Alaska, but, in the past decade, a pest that frequently eats its way through salad greens and other plants in Southcentral and Southeast Alaska has also made its appearance in gardens north of the Alaska Range: slugs.
Photo by Hubert Szczygie艂 via iNaturalist
A meadow slug, Deroceras laeve, crosses the ground in 海角论坛 on June 19, 2021.
Birch-themed dinner on tap at The Pub
The UAF Office of Sustainability and OneTree Alaska will host a birch-themed dinner experience in The Pub on Tuesday, April 30, at 5:30 p.m.
The menu will explore the versatility of birch syrup and features: birch-onion confit over toasts, salad with a birch-balsamic dressing, salmon with a birch glaze, and birch butter tarts for dessert. All of the birch syrup integrated into the meal is produced on the UAF Troth Yeddha' campus in the OneTree STEAM Studio. Tickets also include two glasses of mead produced with local ingredients from Beard Brothers Meadery in 海角论坛. Birch dinner tickets can be purchased for $38 at the Office of Sustainability.
The birch-themed dinner is a collaboration between the Office of Sustainability and OneTree Alaska. The Office of Sustainability offers sustainability-themed events throughout the year and houses student-run sustainability programs including the Wood Center Food Pantry, the Nanook Grown Program, the UAF FreeStore, the Upcycle Annex, Green Bikes, and the UAF Recycling Program. OneTree Alaska is a STEAM (STEM + Arts) program affiliated with the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station of the University of Alaska 海角论坛; in addition to numerous educational programs for all ages, they founded the 海角论坛 Birch Syrup Cooperative.
Recipe wall at Mat-Su food bank
The gave a shoutout to Adair Harman, SNAP-Ed nutrition education in Palmer.
Harman developed a recipe wall at the food bank, updating them depending on what is in season and on hand at the food bank.
Fix, Garcia鈥檚 research featured at BLM symposium
Rachel Garcia and Peter Fix attended the 2024 Bureau of Land Management National Recreation Training Symposium, March 4-7 in Phoenix, along with partner Timothy Casey from Colorado Mesa University. Garcia and Fix met many of the BLM staff they had been working with over the years. Fix and Casey were invited speakers, presenting on the survey and focus group research they have been conducting. The project is a partnership with the Division of Recreation & Visitor Services in the BLM Headquarters Office.
The project, led by Fix, developed a standard research methodology that can be applied at any recreation area bureau-wide. The BLM Recreation Planning Program lead promotes the research capabilities of the IANRE-led research and secures funding for the projects. Since its inception, the project has contacted over 3,500 visitors at 10 sites across six states, with surveys at over 10 sites currently being planned. As summarized by one BLM staff member attending the workshop, 鈥淲hen it comes to recreation research in the BLM, Pete鈥檚 the main dude.鈥
A busy month for SNAP-Ed program
鈥 Reina Hasting
Alaska SNAP-Ed had several events in March to promote the Every Bite Counts Marketing
Campaign and provide nutrition education. SNAP-Ed partnered with the Alaska Food Policy, Public
Health AmeriCorps Service intern Summer Sweet to provide food demos and nutrition
education at their Community Cafe events.
Adair Harman (top left), Mat-Su nutrition educator, provided a food demonstration in Talkeetna at the Denali Education Center and Patricia Kohart (bottom left) provided a food demonstration in Anchorage at the University of Alaska Anchorage Student Union Center. Twenty to 30 people attended each event.
Danielle Craven (center images), Bethel nutrition educator, presented the SNAP-Ed program at the Orutsararmiut Native Council board meeting prior to the Tribal Unity Gathering XXVIII held by the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp., where she also had a booth. Reina Hasting attended the event in Bethel, the central hub of the Kuskokwim River Delta鈥檚 network of 56 villages. Over a hundred people attended the event.
The Anchorage SNAP-Ed program hosted booths at several locations. Patricia (bottom right) was at the Alaska Maternal Child Health & Immunization Conference 2024, the Alaska Native Cultural Charter School Family Night and the Anchorage School District Community Resource Event at Clark Middle School. At the latter, Reina (top right with Patricia) met Molly of Denali, Anchorage Mayor David Bronson and many others in the Anchorage community. She was asked to do a quick.
Arctic Research Open House
Grab your and be 鈥淭undra Struck鈥 by 海角论坛鈥 Rockin' Research! Jam out with our rock star research groups along the West Ridge of UAF鈥檚 Troth Yeddha鈥 campus. Try on a survival suit; tour the office of the National Weather Service; live music, food truck, watch a lava demonstration, and launch a paper rocket.
IANRE will be based in the Arctic Health greenhouse classroom, with greenhouse tours, a look at GIS research, small grain research and a chance examine tree rings, and how they react to recent weather patterns. Parking is free along Koyukuk Drive. Don't miss the free ice cream hosted by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and a chance to win door prizes. Minors must be accompanied by an adult.
Bristol Bay 4-H featured in Alaska Children鈥檚 Trust newsletter
The story is headlined: Bristol Bay 4-H has fun 鈥淗owling with Huskies鈥
鈥淏ristol Bay 4-H is one of over 300 afterschool programs that benefit from being a part of ACT鈥檚 program, the . Recently, Bristol Bay 4-H did a lesson on mushing using the ACT sponsored book 鈥淗owling with Huskies and Other Ways to Feel Good.鈥 What a fun way to engage kids in recent events with the Iditarod!鈥 The book is .
Job openings
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Upcoming classes and workshops
Food preservation workshops scheduled for Yakutat
Three days of workshops with sessions covering water bath and pressure canning, pickling and fermenting vegetables, and making fruit leather are scheduled for April 25-27 in Yakutat. More .
Sitka classes on tree pruning, fish skin tanning
- Learn pruning techniques with Casey Tennis and receive a solid base in the science and practice of selective pruning on April 27. More .
- Join Karen Denis McIntyre of Creative Native for a two-day workshop on creating and working with salmon skin leather on May 3-4. Participants will learn how to process, treat, and create salmon skin leather. More
Pesticide applicator training classes
A three-day certified pesticide applicator training course is scheduled for April 23-25. It will be taught via Zoom and is available statewide. The class will meet from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. More information is available online.
Palmer-based workshops
Classes at Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center, 1509 S Georgeson Drive, Palmer. Most are in-person. See details below. Call 907-745-3360 for more information and to register for the free classes.
- April 24, 6-7 p.m.: Alaska Gardening. Free.
- April 30, 6-7 p.m.: Backyard chickens. Free
- May 24, 6-7 p.m.: Lawn care. Free.
StrongPeople training in 海角论坛
This training on April 26, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. is for individuals who wish to use the evidence-based, effective strength training StrongPeople/ StrongBodies program and become Leaders for nonprofit, community settings. Leader applicants should be currently using weights and will ideally have some experience/training in exercise or health instruction. More .
Green-up in the Alaska Boreal Forest
Green-up, that time when leaves burst forth from Alaska鈥檚 deciduous trees, has important implications for the seasonal ecology, society and even meteorology in the state. The unique multi-decadal record of green-up dates in 海角论坛 has been used to develop a technique for forecasting green-up and related events in the Interior and more broadly in the boreal forest regions in Alaska. This webinar is scheduled for 11 a.m. on April 30. Led by Rick Thoman (Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy) and Jan Dawe (OneTree), it will be the fifth annual review of the green-up forecasting tools and will provide a look-ahead for green-up for spring 2024. OneTree will demonstrate citizen science outreach tools for birch tappers and others. .
Native Plant Month webinars
May is Alaska Native Plant Month. The Alaska Native Plant Society is partnering with the UAF Cooperative Extension Service to host a webinar series to discuss finding, using and growing native plants. The webinars are scheduled for 12-1 p.m. on Wednesdays, May 1, May 8, and May 15. For more information, visit
Save the date
Field day at the 海角论坛 Experiment Farm is July 30 and Matanuska Experiment Farm is Aug. 1.
In the News
The Alaska House of Representatives unanimously voted to annually recognize 4-H in Alaska in October. House Bill 337, sponsored by Rep. Donna Mears (D-Anchorage), would establish the first Wednesday of October as 4-H Day.
- Reina Hasting's April 21 column in the News-Miner:
- Adrian Kohrt's April 7 column in the News-Miner:
- Marla Lowder's March 24 column in the News-Miner:
(Note, if you don't subscribe to the News-Miner, you can read Extension columns on the )
Events
Check out the rolling calendar on the for the most up-to-date schedule of events.