How the Alaska CASC supports land managers
We support land managers' information needs
The Alaska CASC's last project solicitation closed on May 31, 2023. We expect our next solicitation to open in early 2025.
In 2022 AK CASC researcher Rick Lader partnered with US National Park Service researchers to address data needs around changing temperatures, rainfall regimes, and risks of landslides across current and proposed road corridors in three National Parks. We have also had a long-term partnership with the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys’ cryospheric hazards program to better understand the changing risk of avalanches and landslides across the state. These are just a few recent examples of collaborative work with land management agencies to produce actionable science. Agency partners are a key audience for our work, and collaborate on a day-to-day basis with the AK CASC through specific funded projects and through ad-hoc collaboration and networking.
Other land management agency partners in AK CASC-funded research projects have included the US Forest Service, Eyak Corporation, the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, Metlakatla Indian Community, the City & Borough of Juneau, and others.
Our networks drive data accessibility
An AK CASC-led research project, the Integrated Ecosystem Model, in combination with lessons learned from our work on the Building Resilience Today project drove the development of a new web tool with our partners at SNAP - Northern Climate Reports. A key lesson-learned at the AK CASC was that area summaries are critical for land managers. The resulting tool delivers plain-language summaries and basic data files of climate projections of hydrology, temperature, wildfire return interval, and more for all of Alaska. Other tools driven by our network of research include a data portal for programmers (the SNAP API) and downscaled maps of climate variables at 4km resolution for Southeast Alaska.
We create models and tools to answer management questions
The AK CASC develops high-resolution climate models and specialized tools to support natural resource management decisions. From wildfire to hydrology and permafrost to vegetation dynamics we model Alaska’s changing environment to answer questions about vegetation and wildlife with a focus on how those changes will impact human use on the land for preservation, recreation, and subsistence. Our collaborative approach ensures that land managers have access to localized, actionable data for developing adaptation and mitigation strategies based on the best available science.
We support land managers’ communication needs
AK CASC researchers and staff provide comprehensive and accessible resources tailored to regional needs. Land managers collaborating with investigators on research projects will find that communications planning is integrated into every stage of the project to best understand how funded science will support adaptation planning, and how to format those results to best serve a management audience. In the past this has meant peer-reviewed publications, research summary ‘one-pagers’, web tools, or presentations. Our researchers have also developed specific resources at the request of land management agencies when appropriate outside of funded projects.
We are also constantly developing and updating our broader resources and engaging in conversations across the state, and occasionally outside of Alaska to ensure that our communications strategies are serving manager needs. You’ll find AK CASC researchers engaged at regional conferences such as the Alaska Forum on the Environment, at federal meetings such as the US Fish and Wildlife Service EarthWeek Climate discussions and at meetings of the Northern Latitudes Partnerships alongside numerous Tribes and federal land management agencies.