New superintendent joins Matanuska Experiment Farm

Submitted by Nancy Tarnai
Phone: 907-474-5042
04/03/09

Judson Scott was recently named the new superintendent at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Matanuska Experiment Farm.

As superintendent, Scott is responsible for the field operations, physical plant operations, and administrative functions necessary to meet the needs of research, instruction and outreach at the farm.

Raised in Wyoming and Colorado, Scott holds bachelor’s degrees in environmental conservation and landscape horticulture. Scott has long been fascinated with agricultural research. His career has focused on golf course construction, maintenance and management, including a six-year stint at Settlers Bay golf course in Wasilla. While there, he helped with turfgrass variety trials and installed two research putting greens. In cooperation with the Palmer Research and Extension Center, the two putting greens at Settlers Bay were used for variety-trials research of northern-latitude-adapted turfgrass species. Up to 16 varieties of turfgrass have been in the green at one time and the plots are still being used for research today. He also worked two years on the North Slope.

His goals are for the farm to continue to diversify its research to match the changes occurring in Alaska and to "really bring the Valley to know and support the work we’re doing here."

The Matanuska Experiment Farm was established in 1917 and became part of UAF’s Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station in 1931. Its 260 cultivated acres and 800 acres of forest are used for research in sustainable agriculture, land reclamation, and environmental issues.

CONTACT: Nancy Tarnai, UAF School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences public information officer, 474-5042 or fnnjt@uaf.edu.

MG/4-3-09/143-09