News and announcements
The 16th Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference was held in Nome this month, hosted by Alaska Sea Grant and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Northwest Campus. The four-day conference brought together more than 130 scientists, specialists and community members to focus on the theme “Western Alaska in transition.”
"As the ocean and climate of Western Alaska continues to warm, the impacts are like dominos, one falling into the next,” explained Gay Sheffield, Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program agent for the Bering Strait region and co-chair of the conference. “WAISC is an opportunity to bring people and researchers from many disciplines to share their expertise and learn together as Western Alaska continues to comprehensively transition into a new future.”
Every year, WAISC provides a forum for bringing urban and rural Alaskans together to a regional hub community to share knowledge and science across disciplinary and cultural boundaries.
“For institutional experts to meet and learn from local and Indigenous experts is critical for informed decisions to be made regarding ballooning development and effects on the Bering Strait region of Alaska,” said Barb Amarok, the director of UAF Northwest Campus.
Jackie Hrabok led a 35-hour two-credit reindeer meat production class in Nome, HLRM F160 Reindeer Meat Production on March 27-April 2.
The class consisted of 15 hours of lessons in meat chemistry, slaughterhouse design, and commercial USDA regulations for harvesting. These lessons were put to use in 17 hours of hands-on butchering, grinding meat, and making burgers and reindeer jerky.
Students made 122 portions of vacuum-packed reindeer jerky and distributed them at the WAISC Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference in Nome. A USDA Indigenous Meat Production grant of the Drumbeats Alaska Consortium High Latitude Range Management program sponsored student travel, equipment, supplies and material, and meat studio classroom renovations.
Jackie said it was the first time she had taught this class in English. Previous classes were in Finnish at the European Union-sanctioned slaughterhouse in Toivoniemi, Finland.
"Teamwork among Mother Earth, herders, Bering Air, colleagues, an emotional support
dog, Amazon Prime shipping, and No. 1 students supported this goodness, not to mention
the generous USDA funding," she said.
By Ava White
While all University of Alaska (UA) institutions offer unique traditional Alaska Native
courses on languages and arts, the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ (UAF) Northwest Campus (NWC) offers an atigi, or a traditional King Island parka making
course.
Among the three UA colleges, UAF, University of Alaska Southeast (UAS), and University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), UAF stands as the only university in the United States to offer a class in traditional parka crafting.
Feeding the Last Frontier is a six part series on food security in Alaska. We talk to the key players in the state's food system, discuss the system's strengths and weaknesses, and ask—can the last frontier feed itself?
Jackie Hrabok, UAF's Northwest Campus assistant professor of High Latitude Range Management, hosted and led an international cultural exchange for the Alaska Reindeer Directors. Delegates were from Mekoryuk on Nunivak Island, the Kawerak Reindeer Herders Association and the Kawerak Environmental Department.