The District worked with area producers on Nutrient and Pest Management Planning for large and small farms and gardens. We worked with cooperators to help them identify pests, calibrate equipment, and maintain records. The District continues to gather data to improve nutrient planning by taking thousands of soil and foliage samples to assess the effectiveness of the nutrient plans and to improve our recommendations.
We continue to provide assistance to landowners by demonstrating proper sample collection, site visits, and nutrient recommendations.
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Another project currently underway by the District is an Alternative Fuel Program. Alternative fuels most actively considered are those that originate from farm products or by-products, including barley, canola, canola meal, and biomass such as straw or grass.
As part of the Alternative Fuel Program, the District is working with Ft Greely on a bio-mass project using barley as a fuel source. If this project is approved, it will stabilize agriculture and stimulate the local economy. It will reduce the cost of heat at Ft. Greely by half and save up to 1.9 million gallons of fuel oil.
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We installed autosteer units on three pieces of farm equipment this year to begin evaluating the potential for saving herbicide, fertilizer, and fuel by reducing overlap in farming operations. The study will run for three years, after which the equipment will be made available for use to farmers around the state. Data will continue to be collected from the larger area to update our study. Information on savings will be distributed to the farm community so each farmer can evaluate the potential cost/benefit to his own operation.
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| Bison Range Fertilizing video |
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The District continues to work with area farmers and Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) to reduce the amount of crop damage from Bison. We continue to participate in numerous meetings over the past year to work toward solutions. In 2011, we continued to implement a bison management plan by controlling brush from the summer range and fertilizing 35 acres of bluegrass on the training ranges around Big Lake at Ft. Greely.
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The District has renewed an offer of assistance to DNR and ADF&G to construct a barrier between the farms and the bison or some other suitable measure to prevent the continued crop depredation. In 2011, we implemented a cost-share program for fencing farmsteads in the area of bison depredation to prevent bison damage to machinery, buildings, and stored crops.
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| Bison Fence Proposal Presentation |
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The District expanded its boundaries to include the entire Delta River watershed. We have begun a resource analysis of the area to acquaint ourselves with the needs and resources of the new area. This will enable us to better address our mission by looking at the watershed as a complete unit.
We partnered with the Cold Regions Research Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) and researchers from the UAF Water and Environmental Research Center (WERC) to study the watershed associated with Jarvis Creek and the Granite Mountains. This past spring, teams from these the three organizations travelled into the Granite Mountains and up Jarvis Creek via snow machine to perform snow surveys and collect snow samples in order to study the hydrology of the watershed.
A few weeks later, another team travelled via helicopter to Jarvis Glacier to install semi-permanent markers to measure glacial melt and movement. The markers were installed by drilling a hole in the glacier ice approximately 7 meters deep using a steam drill. They were then surveyed using a survey-grade GPS system. In August, another team travelled back to the glacier to re-survey the glacier stakes and collect data from a weather station that was set up on the ridgeline above the glacier in the spring.
Ultimately, this project will help us understand this important watershed better.
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