Published Jul 18, 2024 by alaskabusiness

Jumping back into action, the Rasmuson Foundation ended a months-long grantmaking pause with an announcement that it awarded $5.75 million to strengthen the UA Arctic Leadership Initiative, assist in providing housing in Juneau, and collect oral histories through a US Bureau of Indian Affairs traveling museum exhibit.

The $5 million grant to support the Arctic Leadership Initiative follows from the foundation asking UA president Pat Pitney in 2021 for big ideas to catalyze. In 2022, the foundation provided seed money to put the initiative into action. Now, the foundation is an early investor.

“It’s an ambitious strategic endeavor intended to reshape Alaska’s role in the Arctic and make significant contributions to people living in the Arctic region,” says Tasha Pineda, vice president of strategy for Rasmuson Foundation. “As residents of our nation’s only Arctic state, younger Alaskans are uniquely positioned to lead into the future. This funding will accelerate the development of solutions, innovations, and new economic opportunities for Alaskans across the state.”



Published Jul 17, 2024

Sightings of Chinese military vessels off the waters of Alaska by the US coastguard earlier this month were the latest sign of growing military cooperation between Beijing and Moscow in the Arctic and the northern Pacific, and a move that analysts said was intended to “counter” the strategic agenda led by Washington and Nato in the region.

Troy Bouffard, director of the Centre for Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said the entry of the Chinese warships into the waters off Alaska is “rare” because of historical maritime constraints, which until recently, have mostly confined China to coastal operations.

“However, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy has embarked on an ambitious trajectory to rapidly develop its blue-water capabilities, with a particular emphasis on naval force projection,” Bouffard said.

“This strategic pivot is evident when conducting operations within another state’s EEZ. This approach not only signals China’s evolving maritime doctrine but also serves as a crucible for its developing naval presence in the international arena.”

Cameron Carlson, founding director of the Homeland Security and Emergency Management programme at the the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said China’s self-positioning as a “near-Arctic state” reflects its ambition to capitalise on economic opportunities.

These include oil, gas and minerals extraction, as well as shorter maritime routes between Asia and Europe, he said.

“Collaborations with Russia will continue to further enhance China’s military presence and surveillance capabilities in the Arctic, challenging US influence and capabilities within the region.”

According to Carlson, the US perceives China’s Arctic ambitions “with suspicion, particularly concerning potential military expansion and challenges to Arctic sovereignty”.

Published Jul 17, 2024 by Updates

Malik started her college journey at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. But after her first year, having found landscape architecture, she decided to transfer out of state. No universities in Alaska have a landscape architecture program—leaving her to hunt the lower 48 for one.

Another draw was URI and Alaska Fairbanks are part of a national student exchange program – so Malik pays a lower tuition. For someone paying her own way through college, that was big. She started saving to pay out-of-state tuition her first year at Alaska Fairbanks, worked 50-hour weeks (fittingly) at outdoor gear retailer REI during the summers, and applied for as many scholarships as possible.

This spring, that strategy paid off in three awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows Scholarship—a total of $15,000 in grants and a registration and travel stipend to the ASLA conference in Washington, D.C., this October. “I’m extremely grateful for the Landscape Architecture Foundation, and all the support they have been providing,” she says. “Gaining this financial help has significantly changed the trajectory of my academic career for the best. I will no longer have to take out loans to pay for school, which is huge.”

The past two summers, Malik has interned at two Fairbanks landscape architecture firms—Design Alaska and Bettisworth North Architects and Planners—to prepare her for her goal of working in her home state after college. Landscape architecture is a small field in Alaska, with only 55 licensed landscape architects in a state of 663,000 square miles, she says. In Fairbanks, she says, the landscape is covered with snow, temperatures below zero, and darkness almost half the year. The growing season is only three months. 

“How does a landscape architect deal with something like this?” she asks. “That is when creativity and ingenuity come into play. Using engaging lighting, hardscapes, and plants with winter interest are some ways to invite some flair to the winter.”

“I am really interested in how landscape architecture can impact a state that is known for its untouched landscape,” she adds. “Alaska is growing, and with climate change, the cities here need to consider environmentally conscious design. I would like to be a part of that conversation.”

Published Jul 17, 2024 by Vanessa Orr

Just below the view of Alaska’s amazing landscape is an entirely different world. The state’s seascape offers stunning sights—and local dive and scuba shops are thriving because of them.



Test the Waters also trains military personnel to become professional divers after they leave the service, and the shop co-teaches a college-level scientific diving course with a UAF professor. Divers take the class in the spring and finish with dives at the federal ocean lab on Kasitsna Bay, near Seldovia. The company also teaches a survival course for various organizations.

Published Jul 17, 2024 by Jasz Garrett

Due to heavy rain and ice melt over the past week, the fill rate of Suicide Basin has increased to approximately 50 feet per week, according to the National Weather Service Juneau website.

“There’s concern because of how full it is,” said Aaron Jacobs, senior hydrologist for NWSJ. “But there’s no indication of any type of release taking place at this time. But it has risen a fair amount over the last week from heavy rain. And we just did some calculation and looks like we can see a full basin by the first week of August.”

Suicide Basin is a side basin above the face of the Mendenhall Glacier. Since 2011, Suicide Basin has released glacier lake outburst floods known as jökulhlaups that cause inundation along Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River multiple times each year.

NWSJ, the U.S. Geological Survey, the City and Borough of Juneau, and the University of Alaska Southeast work together to surveil Suicide Basin. In June, expert researchers held a town hall to discuss newly installed monitoring equipment. A livestream of the town hall can be watched here.