natural resources

Dr. Jennifer Schmidt and Dr. Brett Watson, faculty at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), have been named to tenure-track positions in the College of Business and Public Policy (CBPP), where ISER is located. They will continue their research at ISER and will teach courses within CBPP’s Departments of Economics and Public Policy and Administration (MPPA).

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.

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.

A team of Alaska researchers led by ISER’s Tobias Schwoerer has proposed a new methodology to elicit and quantify expert scientific opinion in uncertain environmental applications. The work, which was co-authored with Joseph Little (UAF)  and Gregory Hayward (Alaska Region, US Forest Service), appeared in an article in the Journal of Environmental Management under the title “Quantifying expert opinion with discrete choice models:  Invasive elodea’s influence on Alaska salmonids.”  The new methodology can be used to combine the expert perspectives of many scientists in a way that provides a quantitative measure of which aspects of the problem scientists agree upon and which aspects have less consensus.

Alaskans care about their environment. Whenever we discuss development and conservation proposals, there is always a discussion about whether our water and air are being protected and whether some industries have a good record protecting our air and water. Or not.

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.

The Institute of Social and Economic Research’s (ISER) Dr. Jen Schmidt, alongside co-author Dr. Erin Whitney (Alaska Center for Energy and Power), have an article featured in the recent edition of the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States’ (ARCUS) Witness Community Highlights. The article, “MicroFEWs": Exploring the Impacts of Local Renewable Energy Projects on Remote Arctic Community Security and Resilience, summarized the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded MicroFEWs project which “aims to explore the impact of local and renewable energy projects on FEW security and resilience in the remote Arctic communities,” as, “little research has been done to understand the linkage of Food/Energy/Water (FEW) systems in remote Arctic systems.”