Published Oct 15, 2023 by Julie Stricker

If Interior Alaskans have noticed that summer seems to linger long enough to ripen their tomatoes and winter arrives more slowly, they’re not imagining things.

Nine of the 10 latest “first freezes” have occurred since 2001. The median first freeze date is now two weeks later than it was pre-World War II, University of Alaska Fairbanks climate specialist Rick Thoman said. This year, the first freeze was recorded on Sept. 19.

The trend toward a longer growing season means it’s now possible to grow crops that were once marginal in Interior Alaska, said Glenna Gannon, assistant professor of sustainable food systems at UAF. She heads up the Variety Trials Program at UAF.Temperatures have been recorded at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm at UAF since summer 1911. Climate charts can be found on the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy website.

Published Oct 15, 2023 by Ned Rozell, UAF Geophysical Institute

A few weeks ago, Sarah Gravem lowered a “ravenous, terrifying predator” from her boat down to the ocean floor off Sitka. Then she released it.

In a slow-motion drama, sea urchins fled as a pizza-size sunflower sea star oozed toward them.

Gravem explained: “I release one right in the middle and watch everybody freak out. It’s not just that they eat them, but they scare them. (Urchins) leave and they don’t come back.”

A biologist and diver at Oregon State University, Gravem is trying to understand whether imperiled sunflower sea stars are beneficial to kelp forests, which have also greatly diminished in the last decade.

Published Oct 15, 2023 by Annie Berman

Anchorage high school students will soon be required to select a career track that will be a part of their daily schedule as part of a major shift in the district’s curriculum. It will include job trainings, internships and certifications that the school district hopes will help prepare students for their post-graduation careers.

School district officials are still trying to figure out what the career tracks — which they are calling academies — will be, and how the logistics will work. The district hosted a summit on Thursday with elected officials, industry and nonprofit leaders, parents and students to help narrow down the academies’ focuses based on community need and student interest.

Published Oct 14, 2023 by Chris Bieri

Sky McKinnon’s career as a writer probably has almost had a storybook arc. An avid reader as a child with big dreams, their initial attempts at breaking through in mainstream publishing were unsuccessful. But persistence paid off.

McKinnon, who was born in Soldotna and grew up in Kenai, was recently named a winner of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest. The award comes after McKinnon had more or less given up submitting to traditional publications but never quit writing.

McKinnon earned an MFA in Poetry from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a master’s in library and information science from the University of Washington

Published Oct 14, 2023 by Alaska Native News

KETCHIKAN – The University of Alaska Southeast Maritime Training Center (MTC) based in Ketchikan recently acquired a new vehicle, funded partially by a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation. With its special promotional graphics promoting the work of the center, “The new truck provides the needed transportation for Maritime faculty, staff and equipment and also increases the visibility of our program,” according to Dr. Priscilla Schulte, UAS Ketchikan Campus Director.

The UAS Ketchikan Maritime Training Center is one of six members of the Alaska Maritime Education Consortium, working to address the maritime workforce needs across the state of Alaska. UAS Ketchikan has been training mariners for over thirty years. The UAS Maritime Training Center provides maritime programs meeting regional needs throughout Southeast Alaska.

Published Oct 14, 2023 by https://fm.kuac.org/people/tim-ellis-2

Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma joined a group of Alaska Natives, artists and environmental activists last month in Fairbanks for a performance that expresses Indigenous peoples’ grief over the shrinking population of salmon and other impacts of climate change on the far north.

In his composition performed during a climate change workshop at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Yo-Yo Ma’s mournful strains reflect the sorrow that Alaska Native peoples feel at the loss of once-rich salmon runs decimated by climate change and overharvesting.

Published Oct 14, 2023 by Adrian Peterson Adrian Peterson

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - In the wake of declining salmon runs on the Yukon River and a need to uphold treaties with Canada, the increase of salmon spawning in arctic rivers brings questions how the resource will be managed in the future. It also begs predictions of what will happen next as salmon move north.

As UAF research confirmed an increase of salmon spawning in arctic rivers north of the Brooks Range, there are conclusions that can be drawn from the data ranges for future trends in salmon populations and how those populations will be managed by both the United States and Canada.

Published Oct 13, 2023 by Region 07

LENEXA, KAN. (OCT. 12, 2023) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the selection of the Curators of the University of Missouri to receive a total of $857,744 in Pollution Prevention (P2) Grants with funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) will work with the University of Alaska Fairbanks on a proposed project to improve human health and the environment in disadvantaged communities by reducing air pollution and mining wastes in communities affected by significant mining-intensive activities in Missouri and Alaska.