Natural Resources

Residents in the Matanuska-Susitna and Kenai areas can assess their level of wildfire risk with new online maps developed by ISER research and associate professor Jen Schmidt as part of the Arctic Risks and Adaptations (AURA) project.

The Clear Fire in Interior Alaska has come within a half-mile of the Parks Highway, prompted evacuation orders for several communities, and is still just 22% contained. ISER associate professor Jen Schmidt has developed online maps residents can use to determine their level of wildfire risk. The maps also give insight to existing wildfires like the Clear Fire.

A new paper by Jen Schmidt and Henry Huntington describes a framework they developed to assess food, energy and water security. It provides a consistent means of assessing problems, identifying causes and developing solutions by looking at four components of FEW security: availability, access, preference, and quality.

With hotter and drier summers, wildfires in Alaska will continue to be a concern for communities and individual property owners. Anchorage residents can view the potential for wildfire risk in their neighborhoods with a new online wildfire hazard map developed by ISER researcher Jen Schmidt.

New research from Bob Loeffler and Brett Watson examines the economic potential for Alaska's mineral industry. During an online overview of their research, Loeffler and Watson discussed Alaska's mining status in 2019, and then explained how they used an if-then framework to look ahead 20 years, rather than making predictions about specific projects.

Register for a March 14 noontime webinar on the Economic Potential of Alaska's Mineral Industry, presented by Bob Loeffler and Brett Waston, ISER researchers.

A new report by Bob Loeffler and Steve Colt describes how commercial fishing, mining and tourism provide revenue to the State of Alaska – revenue that the legislature appropriates for services for Alaskans. It also describes what the state spends to manage and promote each industry.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $2.3 million dollars to a project team led by ISER researcher Dr. Jennifer Schmidt to assess fuel treatments as a strategy to reduce wildfire risk in the boreal forest of Alaska and western Canada. Of the total amount, $856,000 will go to the University of Alaska. Eleven researchers from the University of Alaska Anchorage, Northern Arizona University (NAU), the University of Colorado (UC), Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC), and the Wildfire Research Center (WiRē) will work on the four-year project, “Socio-ecological considerations for sustainAble Fuel treatments to Reduce wildfire Risk (SAFRR).”

The May 2021 issue of Nature Sustainability includes a paper co-authored by Jen Schmidt, Assistant Professor of Natural Resource Management and Policy at ISER. "Applying the food-energy-water nexus at a local scale" is part of a study that looks at the benefits of using a food-energy-water (FEW) nexus framework to understand factors that contribute to long-term sustainability and resilience in rural Alaska communities.

Join us for a webinar on March 25 from 12-1 pm, when Dr. Brett Watson will present findings from research studies that statistically quantify how much locals in Alaska communities benefit economically from commercial fishing.