Practical Indoor Gardening Techniques for Alaska Classrooms

Weekend course offered by Alaska Agriculture in the Classroom on Friday, October 5th 6:00pm - 9:00pm and Saturday, October 6 and Sunday, October 7th from 9am - 5pm  at Fairbanks Soil and Water Conservation District 590 University Ave Suite 2.  

This course introduces teachers to the Alaska Ag in the Classroom’s Alaska Indoor Gardening Curriculum. It focuses on interdisciplinary methods including STEM to teach simple, inexpensive, but effective techniques for indoor gardening in classrooms.  This course includes visits to local indoor farms and agriculture based businesses to provide hands-on opportunities with the Alaska Agriculture community. The course offers supplemental, differentiated, challenging curriculum and instruction for regular education, resource and gifted students. Register with UAF online at uaonline.alaska.edu or call 907-474-7021. For more information, email  Melissa Sikes at mel.fswcd@gmail.com or call 907-479-1213 x 105.

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ASP Instructors Needed

Need Experience Teaching in a school setting? Help the Fairbanks Soil and Water Conservation District with presenting fun, engaging, hands-on exploration and natural resource education activities for our After School Programs. Mondays through Thursdays 3-6pm, times vary. Must have own transportation. $12-15/hr DOE, training is provided. Send a resume to mel.fswcd@gmail.com or call Melissa Sikes at 479-1213 x 105 for more information.    

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Elodea eradication in interior Alaska

The second season of herbicide treatment in Chena Slough will begin the week of June 25th. The aquatic herbicide fluridone is being used to eradicate the invasive aquatic plant elodea from the waters of Chena Slough. For more details click on the "Elodea in interior Alaska" tab. 

Herbicide treatment of the invasive elodea infestation in Totchaket Slough will begin this summer! Totchaket Slough is a remote clearwater slough off the Tanana River about 12 miles downstream on Nenana. A dense 230-acre elodea infestation was discovered there in 2015. Stay tuned for more details of our progress on eradicating elodea in the area... 

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NEW Agriculture in the Classroom Curriculum!

Alaska Agriculture in the Classroom is pleased to announce the release of our newest set of lessons on our website, our Alaska Indoor Gardening Curriculum. In the spring of 2017, AK AITC was awarded a grant from the National Agriculture in the Classroom organization to develop this resource. This work is supported in part by the Agriculture in the Classroom Grant no. 2017-38858 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. It was also supported by a grant from the Alaska Farm Bureau. 

This curriculum is a compilation of lessons developed by the Alaska Agriculture in the Classroom program, the National Agriculture in the Classroom (NAITC) organization, and educators throughout Alaska who have developed, reviewed, and piloted many these activities.  Please be patient with us. This is a work in progress, some links are currently in development and will be available soon.

Click HERE to go to the page.

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Jerome "Jerry" Norum, 84, of Fairbanks, passed away Sunday, April 1, 2018, at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.

FSWCD extends its deepest sympathies to Jerry's family, friends, and all who enjoyed and appreciated his tireless efforts to support our mission and all that we do.

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FSWCD has put together a short resource to help producers assess where they stand under the Produce Safety Rule, a portion of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). This resource shows how to identify a producer’s current exemption status, and then gives an overview of the compliance requirements associated with each exemption status (fully exempt, qualified exempt, and non-exempt).

If you are curious about how a producer’s exemption status is determined and what could cause it to change, or if you would like an idea of the farm safety practices the Produce Safety rule advocates for, then please check out this resource here 

Thanks!

Click HERE for a PDF of the FSMA procedures and exemption help guide.
 

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Local WATER group has formed to help residents with information on issues related to environmental water health.

    ELODEA - ALASKA'S FIRST NON-NATIVE INVASIVE AQUATIC PLANT 

Elodea is the first non-native invasive aquatic plant to become established in Alaskan water bodies. It has been found in waterbodies in Anchorage, Cordova, the Kenai Peninsula, the Matanuska-Susitna area, and the Fairbanks area.  It was first detected in the Chena River system in 2009. Surveys conducted in 2011 and 2012 revealed that the lower 10 miles of Chena Slough which runs through North Pole is heavily infested with Elodea. In addition, Chena Lake, at Chena Lakes Recreation Area was found to be infested with Elodea, and a few isolated patches of Elodea were found in the Chena River. In 2015, Totchaket Slough, a slackwater slough located about 60 miles downriver of Fairbanks, was found to be heavily infested as well. 

In Alaska, Elodea infestations in water bodies can be expected to increase sedimentation, displace native vegetation, reduce biodiversity, degrade sensitive fish habitat, and interfere with safe river travel and floatplane operation. Elodea can be spread readily via boats and floatplanes, and because it reproduces vegetatively, a single fragment is all that is needed to start a new infestation. The Fairbanks Elodea Steering Committee propose to use diver-assisted suction dredging in the Chena River, and aquatic herbicide treatments in Chena Slough, Chena Lake, and Totchaket Slough. For more details please follow the links below. 

• Control Options for Elodea spp. in the Chena Slough near Fairbanks, AK: a complication of potential treatments 
• Chena Slough Elodea Control Trials: 2013 Overview 
• Integrated Pest Management Plan for Eradicating Elodea from Water bodies in Interior Alaska
• Environmental Assessment for the Interior Alaska Elodea Eradication Project
• Finding of No Significant Impact- Interior Alaska Elodea Eradication Project
• DEC Pesticide Use Permit for treating Elodea infestations in Chena Slough, Chena Lake, and Totchaket Slough with the aquatic herbicide fluridone:

1. Permit Application 
2. DEC Decision Document 
3. DEC Responsiveness Summary

Chena Slough Elodea Treatment 

The Elodea infestation in Chena Slough (between Plack Rd crossing and the mouth of Chena Slough) is being treated with the aquatic herbicide fluridone (Sonar^TM). The first treatment was conducted in 2017, and a second treatment is currently ongoing in 2018. Liquid fluridone is being delivered via an herbicide injection system at a concentration of 5-8 parts per billion (ppb) over a 12-16 week period that started on June 25^th, 2018. Pelleted fluridone was applied by boat on June 26^th. There will be a follow up pellet treatment in mid-August, 2018. For answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the Chena Slough Elodea Eradication Project click here.  

At the target application rates, there are no restrictions on drinking, swimming, fishing, or livestock/ pet consumption of slough water.

If you use water directly from the slough for irrigation, there are some restrictions that may apply during the treatment period. For plants within the Solanaceae Family such as tomatoes, peppers, tobacco, and potatoes, do not use slough water if the measured fluridone concentration is greater than 5ppb. We recommend that you switch to an alternate irrigation source (e.g. well water) for these crops. 

Water sampling to test the concentration of fluridone in slough water will be carried out weekly over the course of the 2018 season. Please check HERE for updates on slough water fluridone concentration and irrigation restrictions. 

For results of fluridone analysis of well water samples that are being collected this season please click HERE. 

Summer 2017 Chena Slough Elodea treatment results:

For results of fluridone analysis of well water samples from 2017 please CLICK HERE. 

To see the results from summer 2017 at a glance CLICK HERE. 

Photos from summer 2017 elodea treatments:

FSWCD employees conducting the second herbicide application in Chena Slough on August 8th, 2017 

The pink tips are indication of post-treatment damage to elodea (July 27th, 2017) 

Divers from Test the Waters Dive Shop are conducting mechanical 

control of a small patch of elodea in the Chena River

FSWCD Goals

1. Prevention and Eradication of Noxious & Invasive Species

2. Conservation of Plant and Soil Resources
3. Sustainable Agricultural Resources & Economy
4. Conservation/Maintenance of Water Resources
5. Conservation of Forest Resources
6. Education, and
7. Promotion of Affordable Energy