Alaska

For a long time cold weather and geographic isolation protected Alaska from invasive species, but globalization and a changing climate are bringing increased risk. Environmental managers tasked with preventing the spread of invasive species (IS) may do everything they can to prevent the introduction, but travelers, tourists, and companies moving products to Alaska cause IS risk that is difficult for managers to control. Dr.

ISER Center for Alaska Education Policy Research (CAEPR) Director Dayna DeFeo and Research Professionals Jessica Passini and Trang Tran provided findings from two separate evaluation projects at a statewide meeting of educators and education administrators.

Mouhcine Guettabi provided an economic overview and answered questions concerning the impact of the governor's proposed budget to members of the Alaska State Senate and House Finance Committees on Thursday, March 7. 

Mouhcine's presentation, Budget options: What are the short term effects?, is available for download.

ISER’s Jennifer Schmidt gave presentations at the recent Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromso, Norway on the role of technology in remote Arctic communities and how harvesting wood for fuel impacts subsistence. 

Arctic Frontiers brings together academic researchers along with government and business decision makers to promote responsible and sustainable development of the Arctic. 

The problem of invasive species is still in the early stages in Alaska, but a number of them are here. They can crowd out local species and damage ecosystems—and also create economic costs. In a talk at the Anchorage Museum that’s free and open to the public, Tobias Schwörer, a senior research professional at ISER, will help Alaskans understand the risks invasive species pose.

He'll talk about his recent research linking biology and economics to analyze the potential harm that elodea, Alaska's first aquatic invasive plant, creates for Alaska’s environment and economy. The talk is sponsored by the Committee for Noxious and Invasive Pests Management and UAF's Cooperative Extension Service. Come to the museum and learn about elodea and the risks it brings to Alaska.

When: Monday, October 23, 7 p.m.
Where: Anchorage Museum, 625 C Street

Surveys often ask people to assign a value to some specific thing, by estimating how much they’d be willing to pay for it. But there can be a difference between what people say they would pay, and what they would pay, if they actually had to buy something. Economists call this “hypothetical bias,” and they try various ways to overcome it. One way is telling respondents their answers are consequential—that is, their answers can potentially influence actions of agencies or organizations.

Qiujie “Angie” Zheng, an associate professor of economics at UAA, incorporated this notion of consequentiality in a choice experiment in 2015. She worked with colleagues in other U.S. and Chinese universities to survey more than 1,000 shoppers at supermarkets in three Chinese cities, to assess their willingness to pay for Alaska salmon. Currently, little Alaska salmon is available in China.

Join us at ISER to hear what Dr. Zheng learned about Chinese consumers' perceptions about Alaska salmon, and how they value specific characteristics of that salmon.

When: Friday, September 22, 12 to 1
Where: ISER Conference Room, Third Floor, 1901 Bragaw Street, Suite 301

Note: This talk will not be streamed or recorded.

Many coastal Alaska Native communities are seeing rapid erosion, flooding, and other serious problems related to climate change, and a number plan to move to safer ground. Robin Bronen, a senior research scientist at UAF's Institute of Arctic Biology and the executive director of the Alaska Institute for Justice, has been studying the climate-induced need for relocation of these communities since 2007.

At ISER, she talked about her current work with 15 coastal Alaska Native villages, to design and implement a community-led approach to making decisions about relocating their communities in the face of climate change.

When: Friday, May 19, 12 to 1
Where: ISER conference room, Third floor, 1901 Bragaw St., Suite 301

No one has automatic rights to use water in Alaska: the state constitution defines water as a public resource, and the state government decides who can use water, how much, and for what. That's true on both public and private land, and for all landowners—government agencies, businesses, and individual Alaskans.

Anyone who wants to use a significant amount of water has to apply to the state for water rights. A new paper by Marie Lowe and Linda Leask of ISER explains the basics of water rights in Alaska: what they are, when you need them, how to apply for them, and how many have been issued so far.

Download the paper, Understanding Water Rights in Alaska (PDF, 637KB). A supplemental file (PDF, 3.9MB) of some cited references is also available. If you have questions, get in touch with Marie Lowe, associate professor of public policy, at mlowe@alaska.edu or 907-786-6534.