Extension celebrates 75th anniversary this year

Submitted by Debra Damron
Phone: 907-474-5240
02/16/05

Throughout 2005 the Cooperative Extension Service is celebrating three-quarters of a century of providing Alaskans a gateway to their land-grant university. From food preservation and master gardener classes to helping kids become better adults or helping homeowners build energy efficient houses, CES offers educational programs that have immediate and practical applications for Alaskans.

CES is a product of cooperation among local, state and federal governments in partnership with Alaska’s land-grant college, the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In 1915, the U.S. Congress awarded a land grant of approximately 250,000 acres to the Territory of Alaska for a college in Fairbanks to provide practical knowledge of modern mining and farming techniques. UAF was officially founded in 1917 as the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines (AAC&SM) under the leadership of its first president, Charles Bunnell.

The Cooperative Extension Service in Alaska is part of a network of extension programs in the 50 states and territories that serve the U.S. educational system as a link between the nation’s land-grant universities and the public by converting university-based research into applied knowledge. Extension programs started in the lower 48 states beginning in 1914 with federal funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These early programs offered practical education in farming and home economics for rural residents who could not go to the land-grant college in their state or territory.

The goal of Cooperative Extension has always been to meet people’s practical education needs. When Cooperative Extension started in the lower 48, America was an agricultural and rural country. As the country changed from rural to urban, and people’s needs changed, so have Cooperative Extension’s programs.

The Cooperative Extension Service was formally organized as a department of the Territory’s AAC&SM in 1930, with founding President Bunnell serving as the first director of CES. The first district extension office outside of Fairbanks opened in Palmer in 1936, where agents worked with some 200 families selected and transported to the Matanuska Valley to build a farming community under President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.

As Alaska’s population grew and changed so did CES. Although extension’s roots are in agriculture, today some of the educational programs in greatest demand are in water quality, gardening and commercial horticulture. 4-H programs were once referred to as "kids and cows" because of the strong agricultural link. Today’s 4-H offers programs in community service, natural resources and outdoor recreation.

Alaska’s home economics programs are a mix of the old and the new. The influence of subsistence lifestyles created a demand for traditional home economics programs like food preparation, food preservation and sewing. Extension has evolved to meet the varied needs of the state’s diverse communities, from rural to urban, with programs in personal finance, parent education, healthy diets and energy efficient housing.

From one district office in Palmer, extension today has offices in Anchorage, Bethel, Delta Junction, Fairbanks, Glennallen, Juneau, Kodiak, Nome, Sitka, and Soldotna, and has affiliate offices with the Tanana Chiefs Conference, Eielson Air Force Base, Thorne Bay, and the Delta Mine Training Center. Informal education services are provided to more than 60,0000 Alaskans annually through extension offices, workshops, seminars, personal consultations and publications.

CES marks 75 years of service to the people of Alaska throughout 2005 with events and celebrations at extension offices across the state. CES will continue to serve as a critical link between Alaska’s diverse people and communities and the university system by offering unbiased, research-based information adapted into practical educational programs. CES is Alaska’s gateway to its land-grant university.