The Alaska CASC Goes to Washington

Each year, folks on the university side of the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center (AK CASC) make a trek to Washington D.C. The purpose of the visit is to meet with policymakers to share updates about the work that we do to provide communities with actionable science they can use to make decisions related to climate impacts, adaptation and resilience. 

During the week of March 16, the Alaska CASC University Director Kristin Timm, Institutional PI Scott Rupp and Program Coordinator Gigi Friedman took this annual trip. In visits, they emphasized efforts by the Alaska CASC to provide science that enables communities to take action, such as the recent efforts to build a dashboard that helps Juneau residents explore the effects of the annual glacier outburst flood. The Alaska CASC university team also reported about the wrap up of seven years of river and lake ice research and its importance for understanding safety of ice river travel to rural communities. With both of these projects, the Alaska CASC developed science products usable by all Alaskans, including resource managers, hazard planners and many more. 

Visiting Capitol Hill is part of efforts to help policymakers understand what the AK CASC is doing and the impact of our work. Sharing about our tools also ensures that policymakers have the resources they need to make informed decisions using good, actionable science that can directly impact their constituents. This is ongoing work for us – not only communicating this science to lawmakers but to any Alaskans that need it.