Jennifer Schmidt

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.

A new generation of ISER researchers discuss the questions that fascinate them and the challenges of conducting social science and policy research in Alaska. Lee Gorsuch, ISER director between 1976 and 1994, joined to provide a perspective from the past.

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.

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.

Understanding the acceptance and perceptions of renewable energy is key to facilitating their sustainable development in northern communities say researchers Jennifer Schmidt and Amanda Byrd. Alaskans in rural areas are faced with a number of challenges, including increasing costs for energy and imported foods into their remote communities. Many residents rely on subsistence foods as part of their culture, but also to avoid high prices in the local store. Communities have begun turning to renewable energy to make energy more affordable as well. Schmidt and Byrd examined the connection between renewable energy and subsistence activities in a new paper.

Jennifer Schmidt, Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Management and Policy, presented a fuel treatments database project in October at the Fall Fire Review, an annual event convened by the Alaska Wildland Fire Coordinating Group (AWFCG), the body that oversees fire management in the state.

“The McKinley Fire: Rebuilding and Lessons Learned” is a joint production of UAA Institute of Social Economic Research, Alaska Center for Energy and Power, and Alaska NSF EPSCoR (National Science Foundation Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research). The video is part of EPSCoR’s Fire & Ice project, a five-year study of climate-driven changes to Alaska’s coastal margins and boreal wildfires.

In March 2020, as the first warm rays of sun hit Orca Inlet, Cordova started to emerge from a ferry-less winter. The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) is used by 30 communities for reliable and affordable year-round transportation. But, following the passage of the FY 2020 budget, the Alaska Legislature cut funding for the AMHS by $44 million dollars, a 31% reduction from previous fiscal years.  As a result, according to the Alaska Municipal League, many coastal communities, including Cordova (Figure 1), spent six to eight months with no ferry service during the 2019/2020 winter. Additional funding for the AMHS is included in the FY21 state budget, but Cordova will likely have to wait until July 2020 for the first ferry of the year. By that time, Cordova will have been without ferry service for 9.5 months.