Alaska is an aviation-dependent state with about 23% of the population living off the road system. For so many, aviation infrastructure performance is critical to maintain flows of food, medicine, air ambulance services, patient travel, and basic transportation between communities. One key set of assets from this suite of infrastructure are Automated Weather Observation Stations (AWOS) or Automated Surface Observation Stations (ASOS) that generate real-time aviation weather data that is crucial for operational decision making and the certified weather reports that are functionally essential for landing under instrument flight rules. Given the foundational importance of aviation supply chains for the state economy, aviation stakeholders as well as state and federal leadership have a recognized need for a rapid, top-level monitoring tool of historical aviation weather reporting reliability. This product attempts to fill that gap with routine releases. The following report provides an integrated view of METAR data availability for 137 NWS and FAA AWOS/ASOS weather observation stations across Alaska for Q4 of calendar year 2025 (Oct 01, 2025 to Dec 31, 2025). Top-line results are presented first at the state level, and then as a regional breakdown of detailed, station-level METAR availability. Additionally, Starlink has been partially deployed to allow satellite telco connectivity, given serious deficits in status quo reliability in many locations. At stakeholders request, a breakout is included for the subset of stations with recent Starlink installations to review the extent to which this solution resolved METAR availability in a sustainable fashion. This report is intended for domain awareness only and is purposefully structured in a very formulaic fashion, permitting easy replicability each quarter and largely allowing the reader to interpret drivers of trends.

Squirrels are widespread in Alaska, yet a science-based conservation management plan (CMP) is absent at the state level. Squirrels are killed year-round with no bag limits, while population metrics remain unknown and conservation statuses disputed. This thesis proposes modern tools and approaches as addons for long-term, sustainable, holistic CMPs for all Alaskan squirrel species in a changing climate. Chapter 1 provides an overview of squirrels' current roles and uses in Alaska alongside existing management practices and regulations. Chapters 2 and 3 conduct thorough conservation assessments by analyzing and predicting current and future distributions of squirrel species across Alaska and a 600 km buffer region, utilizing Machine Learning (ML) and state-of-the-art predictive Big Data methodologies to forecast climate suitability shifts over time. These chapters demonstrate that Big Data Open-Access ML Ensemble Species Distribution Models can reveal landscape and climate change effects on species populations and distributions, strongly recommending their inclusion in future CMPs. Forecasts indicate two species will face severe habitat fragmentation and potential population declines, requiring additional conservation initiatives to prevent extinctions. Chapters 4 and 5 provide additional considerations for holistic conservation management. Chapter 4 analyzes heavy metal and essential element concentrations in Interior Alaskan red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) and predicts them landscape-wide on a pixel basis, revealing spatial patterns of concentration hotspots and holding the potential for guiding future ground-truthing and community-focused studies. Chapter 5 analyzes squirrel roles and uses in Alaska Native communities using literature reviews, interviews, and ML data mining. Findings indicate that Arctic ground squirrels (Urocitellus parryii) play essential roles in Indigenous traditions. Chapter 6 summarizes all findings in an essay format. This thesis's results and openly shared data can guide longterm, sustainable squirrel management in Alaska. The proposed modern assessment procedures and conservation management approaches can be applied to virtually any vertebrate species worldwide.

Households and businesses in Southcentral Alaska have relied on Cook Inlet natural gas as their primary energy source for decades, but as utilities face rising costs to secure that gas they are evaluating a portfolio of alternatives, including LNG imports, potential North Slope supplies, alternative fuels for electricity generation, and demand-side management, weighing each along dimensions of cost, timing, quantity, reliability, and long-term economic sustainability. Although technically recoverable gas remains in the Cook Inlet, it will likely be available only at increasingly higher prices, and the gap between lower-cost local supply and regional demand is expected to widen over time; currently identified alternative energy projects (particularly if limited to a narrower set of wind, solar, and geothermal developments) are insufficient on their own to close that deficit. Electrification of residential and commercial heating could reduce direct gas use but would raise electricity demand, potentially increasing gas consumption at gas-fired generators unless additional non-gas generation is developed, meaning the net gas savings are uncertain even though households and businesses may independently adopt such investments. Given these constraints, it is difficult to construct near-term scenarios that avoid LNG imports, while over the medium to long term a broader set of options, including expanded renewables and possible North Slope gas delivery, could partly or fully reduce reliance on imported LNG.

This report examines the challenges and opportunities involved in increasing Alaska’s role in the U.S. critical minerals industry. It describes how critical minerals are defined, and which of those have been mined today, have been mined in the past or are likely to be mined in the near future. It describes how market conditions and geology affect Alaska’s opportunities to increase critical mineral production. It also describes how Alaska’s benefits from critical mineral production are the same as those from any mineral production: jobs, income, and taxes. Finally, the report makes recommendations for expanding critical mineral production.