October 2024 Outlook
From Director Jodie Anderson:
October is nearly done! While many of us are thinking about harvesting and storing the bounty of our gardens, forests and streams, our 4-H professionals are ramping up for a new year of opportunities for growth and development for Alaska’s future leaders.
Oct. 2, 2024, marked the first official Alaska 4-H Day, an accomplishment achieved through the work of the Youth In Governance program led by Marla Lowder. In February of this year, a group of 4-H youths traveled to Juneau to advocate for the creation of a state 4-H day. Rep. Donna Mears of Anchorage, who was a member of 4-H throughout her youth, sponsored the bill, which flew through the Legislature. Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed the bill into law this summer, and I hear that Marla got to keep the pen as a souvenir!
4-H youth are the foundation of our work. The programs and opportunities provided through Alaska 4-H build our next generation of leaders by engaging youth in leadership, learning and fun.
- In Bristol Bay, Deanna Baier led the charge engaging youth in her area to recognize Orange Shirt Day, a national day for truth and reconciliation to encourage conversation and awareness of the impacts boarding schools had on Indigenous communities.
- Anchorage is relaunching with a community open house on Oct. 26, featuring STEM activities, crafts, games, and a coloring contest.
- Palmer 4-H invited community members to Bushes Bunches Produce Stand for games and fun.
- Three Bears Alaska featured 4-H Alaska-grown meat purchased through this summer’s auctions. Word is they sold all of it in just a few hours!
- Alyssa Martin in Kodiak handed out nearly 150 certificates to local youth.
I’d like to thank our 4-H professionals and volunteers for the hard work and dedication that goes into their important work. They really are building our future.
All the best,
Jodie
Meriam Karlsson wins multistate award, raises money for student organizations
Meriam Karlsson is a member of the NCERA-101 team, which was recently selected as the national winner of the 2024 Excellence in Multistate Research Award for its Controlled Environment Technology and Use project. LEDs and lighting technologies are major research areas for the group.
North Central Extension & Research Activity–101 is a USDA project organized to help plant scientists understand how to use controlled environment technology effectively and consistently. A major activity at its annual meetings is the exchange of information on new technologies, their implementation, and encountered issues and problems in controlled environments.
Karlsson, who has been involved with the group for more than 20 years, said the award is for ongoing research covering many aspects of crop production in controlled and modified environments, including season extensions, high tunnels, greenhouses, and vertical and indoor farming.
Karlsson has also been working with Erica Moeller at the Roaming Root Cellar in º£½ÇÂÛ̳ to donate funds from selling bell peppers grown in the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station’s greenhouse to the UAF Resource Management Society. Thanks to Meriam and Erica's efforts, $1,119.50 was raised for this student organization that fosters the next generation of people working on natural resource issues!
Keep an eye out for her greenhouse-grown peppers at the Roaming Root! Future proceeds will be donated to the newly formed Natural Resource and Environment Graduate Student Association.
More than a ton of potatoes harvested at MEFEC
— Theresa Isaac
Another fantastic year of community potato harvest has been completed, with more than
a ton of spuds harvested over three days.
On Monday, Sept. 30, Amy Foote, senior area executive chef at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium Alaska Native Medical Center, and several colleagues harvested over 175 pounds of Tlingit and Haida potatoes grown in the MEFEC Community Garden this year.
Putting the gardens to bed
In September and early October, Georgeson Botanical Garden Manager Lacey Higham, staff, faculty and volunteers worked together to ready the gardens for the winter and next summer's bounty.
Left, GBG staff Carl Deloof uses a sickle bar mower to cut back peonies for the season before they're covered with straw to provide an insulation layer for the deep winter cold. Research technicians Kristin Haney and Inga Peterson use a thresher to separate sunflower seeds from the stalk. Glenna Gannon oversees volunteers planting garlic in a variety trials plot.
Variety Trials wrap-up
— Glenna Gannon
The Variety Trials team is wrapping up their field season by planting garlic and removing
all the materials from the fields. The trials evaluated more than 115 different cultivars
of various crops from asparagus to zucchini!
A huge thank you to the Variety Trials crew this year: Amber Agnew, Anna Drew, Lucy Lhotka, Annika Merkle and Stephanie Teauge. We also had some wonderful volunteers: Soumitra Sakhalkar and Mary Burtness!
Finally, thank you to our farm managers, Kieran Gleason and Jeff Johnson, for their field operations support. Thank you all for a successful year!
Alaska Harvest Collaborative dinner
The Alaska Harvest Collaborative celebrated the end of the growing season at its second
annual Harvest Celebration Meal on Sept. 19. The small, cheerful group came together
to share dishes made with locally grown and foraged ingredients. The event included
students from the Nanook Grown program, Georgeson Botanical Garden staff, and other
people who work to make the Alaska Harvest Collaborative a success: Glenna Gannon,
Katie DiCristina, Mallory Smith and Cathy Turner.
Everyone enjoyed visiting and sharing memories of the season while sampling delicious serviceberry crumble made from serviceberries picked in the botanical garden, French bread with pesto made from Nanook-grown basil, fresh garden carrots, lacto-fermented blueberries, and a lovely coleslaw salad made with produce grown by the Alaska Harvest Collaborative.
Jackie Hrabok, Darren Snyder at WELD
Jackie Hrabok and Darren Snyder each shared progress on their Western Extension Leadership Development (WELD) projects at the cohort meeting in San Diego on Sept. 26. Jackie is working with reindeer producers and Darren is working on a community farm project.
New publication: Growing Cover Crops in Alaska
Caley Gasch, research assistant professor of soil science, UAF Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Station, has written a new publication, "Growing Cover Crops in Alaska."
Cover crops feed the soil and protect the ground surface in between cash crop production seasons, or in bare spaces. Learn about the plants that can be grown as cover crops, their advantages and disadvantages.
Mycorrhizae: Nature’s Barterers
— Laura Weingartner
A walk in the woods often involves looking up and admiring the trees over our heads.
Under our feet and out of sight are organisms that help those trees thrive, allies
that trade nutrients for food. These barterers are called mycorrhizal fungi.
Mycorrhizal fungi form partnerships with plants using microscopic thread-like structures called hyphae. Hyphae navigate their way inside plant roots and extend out into the soil, growing faster and farther and accessing more nooks and crannies in the soil than the plant’s roots can.
SNAP-Ed Update
Alaska SNAP-Ed held its FY25 state conference in September at UAF. Nutrition educators, faculty and staff traveled or Zoomed in from within the state to attend. Left image; left to right top: Danielle Craven, Andrea Bersamin, Kym Miller, Patricia Kohart, Reina Hasting. Left to right front: Krista Jordan, Dana Davis, Blanche Sam and Katy Thompson.
A new SNAP-Ed project has been added in partnership with Andrea Bersamin, professor of nutrition with the Center for Alaska Native Health Research and Northwest Strategies, to develop five Alaska mini magazines featuring local plants or berries.
A new position, Remote Travel Nutrition Educator, was created. The RTNE based in Anchorage, Kym Miller, will service Dillingham and Nome and the RTNE based in º£½ÇÂÛ̳, Katy Thompson, will service º£½ÇÂÛ̳ and the Interior. We welcome the new SNAP-Ed program assistant Blanche Sam to the team. Dana Davis moved into the SNAP-Ed program evaluation position.
Mat-Su nutrition educator Adair Harman (right image) will be moving on. Her last day with UAF was Oct. 16. We appreciate all her hard work and dedication to the university and the SNAP-Ed program over the years. We will miss her, but we are happy for her new endeavors and wish her the best.
We are recruiting to fill a nutrition educator position in Anchorage.
Want to express UAF Farm Pride? Here's a link!
Check it out! You can now buy UAF farm logo shirts on the .
Upcoming events
- Two lumber grading certification workshops are scheduled for Oct. 23 in Sitka and Oct. 30 in Haines. Visit the website for more information and to register.
- Free "spooky science" webinars are on tap for Wednesdays in October, hosted by the Anchorage Outreach Office. The webinars will be from noon-1 p.m. . Oct. 23: "Creepy Crawlies" with entomologist and Cooperative Extension integrated pest management technician Alexandra Wenninger
- UAF Cooperative Extension Service is hosting a week of workshops in Kodiak beginning Oct. 21. IANRE presenters include Jim Vinyard, Gino Graziano, Alex Wenninger, Sarah Lewis and Jozef Slowik. Visit the website for more information.
- Glen Holt is presenting a webinar on firewood at noon on Tuesday, Oct. 22. . On Tuesday, Oct. 29, from noon-1 p.m. Holt will discuss chainsaw maintenance and care. .
- Leslie Shallcross will lead a series of food preservation workshops in Tok on Nov. 1-2. .
- Learn more about pumpkins and squash that grow in Alaska from Variety Trials director Glenna Gannon during a free webinar at noon on Wednesday, Nov. 6. .
- The 25th annual Alaska Invasive Species Workshop is scheduled for Nov. 12-14 in º£½ÇÂÛ̳. Participants can or they can .
In the News
- Heidi Rader and Glenna Gannon published an opinion column in the Oct. 13 Anchorage Daily News:
- Alaska Business magazine wrote a feature on a webinar hosted by Anchorage Outreach Center:
- Leslie Shallcross' Oct. 6 column in the News-Miner:
- Marla Lowder's Oct. 20 column in the News-Miner:
(Note, if you don't subscribe to the News-Miner, you can read Extension columns on the )