The Alaska Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station (AFES) is administered by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The station includes the Fairbanks Experiment Farm, the Matanuska Experiment Farm & Extension Center and the Delta Junction field research site. The Georgeson Botanical Garden and the Reindeer Research Program are at the Fairbanks farm.
Researchers associated with the experiment station focus on creating knowledge and solving problems in agriculture, natural resources and the forest sciences. State and federal agencies, private industry, and the university sponsor and fund AFES research.
News
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Nov. 22 workshop on variety trials to include taste tests
Nov. 20, 2019Glenna 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.Read article -
Invasive species workshop comes to Fairbanks
Oct. 21, 2019The Alaska Invasive Species Workshop, Oct. 22-24 in Fairbanks, will highlight early detection and prevention of invasive species. 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.Read article -
Fairbanks Experiment Farm sees longer growing season
Oct. 9, 2019Rick 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.Read article
Agroborealis Research Highlights
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Fall 2019While studying how trees take up snowmelt and rainwater, Jessie Young-Robertson noticed dramatic seasonal variations in the water content of trees, particularly in deciduous trees like birch and aspen.Read highlight -
Spring 2019Finding vegetable varieties that grow well in Alaska has been a goal of experiment stations from their earliest days. Agronomist C.C. Georgeson published his first circular that recommended vegetable varieties in 1906, a year before the Fairbanks Experiment Station and farm opened.Read highlight -
Fall 2018The village of Savoonga owns a herd of more than 3,000 reindeer, and a decreasing supply of walrus and other marine mammals has the St. Lawrence Island community thinking more about its reindeer as a source of food and employment.Read highlight
Fairbanks Experiment Farm staff have been collecting weather data since 1911.