-
Executive Summary: The Status of Alaska Natives Report 2004
Oliver Scott Goldsmith, Lance Rowe, Linda Leask, Jane Angvik, and Alexandra Hill
-
Economic Projections for Alaska and the Southern Railbelt to 2030
Scott Goldsmith
For the foreseeable future, the Alaska export base will continue to be dominated by commodity-producing industries combined with tourism, national defense, and the movement of international freight. Relatively high labor costs, sparse and expensive infrastructure, small market size, and distance from markets will continue to act as barriers to the development of significant processing as well as manufacturing and services for export. Petroleum, mining, tourism, and international freight hold the most potential for employment growth. Growth of the timber and seafood industries may result from more intensive exploitation of the resource base, together with the expansion of value-added processing.
-
2004 Alaska Construction Spending Forecast
Scott Goldsmith and Mary Killorin
We estimate total construction spending in Alaska in 2004 will be $5.315 billion, about the same as last year. Private spending will be $3.250 billion, or 61 percent of the total. Public spending will contribute $2.065 billion, or 39 percent.
-
Economic Development Performance Indicators: 3 Briefing Papers
Lance Howe, Linda Leask, and Stephanie Martin
Recent federal legislation established an economic development committee and 12 regional advisory committees with the Denali Commission. To measure the success of the programs established under these committees, performance indicators and measures are required. This report reviews and inventories exisiting performance measure for rural Alaska as the foundation of a study for new measures.
-
An Alaskan Law School: Is it feasible?
Mary Killorin
Responding to a request from the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) alumni, the UAA provost asked the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) to investigate the need for a law school in Alaska. Alaska is the only state that does not have a law school. The question of whether to establish a law school in Alaska has been discussed for more than thirty years. In 1974, the University of Alaska, in conjunction with the Alaska Legislative Council, commissioned a feasibility study for an Alaska law school.In May 1975, John Havelock, then director of Legal Studies at the University of Alaska, issued a report, Legal Education for A Frontier Society: A Survey of Alaskan Needs and Opportunities in Education, Research and the Delivery of Legal Services. The report is 240 pages and is very broad in scope. In this study, almost thirty years later, we revisited the question of the feasibility of establishing a law school in Alaska and came to the same conclusions. There is still no need to increase the supply of lawyers by establishing a law school in Alaska. The state can meet the legal education needs of its residents by increasing its financial support for students who go outside to law school and by establishing cooperative programs with existing ABA accredited law schools.
-
Modeling Sustainability of Arctic Communities: An Interdisciplinary Collaboration of Researchers and Local Knowledge Holders
Jack Kruse
How will climate change affect the sustainability of Arctic villages over the next 40 years? This question motivated a collaboration of 23 researchers and four Arctic communities (Old Crow, Yukon Territory, Canada; Aklavik, Northwest Territories, Canada; Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, Canada; and Arctic Village, Alaska USA) in or near the range of the Porcupine Caribou Herd. We drew on existing research and local knowledge to examine potential effects of climate change, petroleum development, tourism, and government spending cutbacks on the sustainability of four Arctic villages. We used data across eight disciplines to develop an Arctic Community Synthesis Model and Web-based, interactive Possible Futures Model. Results suggested that climate warming will increase vegetation biomass within the herd's summer range. However, despite forage increasing, the herd was projected as likely to decline with a warming climate because of increased insect harassment in the summer and potentially greater winter snow depths. There was a strong negative correlation between hypothetical, development-induced displacement of cows and calves from utilized calving grounds and calf survival during June. The results suggested that climate warming coupled with petroleum development would cause a decline in caribou harvest by local communities. Because the synthesis Model inherits uncertainties associated with each component model, sensitivity analysis is required. Scientists and stakeholders agreed that (1) although simulation models are incomplete abstractions of the real world, they helped bring scientific and community knowledge together, and (2) relationships established across disciplines and between scientists and communities were a valuable outcome of this study.
-
Kids Count Alaska 2004
Claudia Lampman and Virgene Hanna
This year we look at adoption. Nearly 4% of children in Alaska are adopted, according to the 2000 U.S. census - the biggest share in any state. We also show the personal face of adoption. Other information contained in this issue include statistics on infancy, economic well-being, education, children in danger and juvenile justice.
-
The Status of Alaska Natives Report 2004 Volumes I - III
Linda Leask, David Marshall, Scott Goldsmith, Alexandra Hill, Jane Angvik, Lance Howe, and Brian L. Saylor
The Alaska Federation of Natives asked ISER to report on social and economic conditions among Alaska Natives. We found that Natives have more jobs, higher incomes, and better living conditions, health care, and education than ever. But they remain several times more likely than other Alaskans to be poor and out of work. Alcohol continues to fuel widespread social problems. Native students continue to do poorly on standard tests, and they’re dropping out in growing numbers. Rates of heart disease and diabetes are rising. In the face of all these challenges, subsistence remains critical for cultural and economic reasons. And there are more challenges to come. In the coming decade, when economic growth is likely to be slower than in the past, thousands more young Alaska Natives will be moving into the job market. Volume II and Volume III of the Status of Alaska Natives Report contain data tables generated from the 2000 U.S. census describing the Alaska Native American population by the 12 Alaska Native Regional Corporation boundaries. Volume II shows data for the population in Alaska reporting Native American as their only race (Alaska Native or American Indian Alone) and Volume III shows data for the population reporting Native American in combination with some other race (Alaska Native or American Indian Alone or in Combination). At the time of the 2000 Census, there were 98,043 single-race Native Americans in Alaska and 119,241 people who identified themselves as Native American in combination with some other race. The tables in these volumes have been generated from a special file prepared by the U.S. Census Bureau that contains detailed information on the Native American population for the entire United States. The AIANSF (American Indian and Alaska Native Summary File) is accessible on the internet at http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet"
-
2004 Evaluation, Sister School Exchange Rose Urban Rural Program
G. Williamson McDiarmid and Rosyland Frazier
-
Student Exchange Rose Urban Rural Exchange Program Evaluation 2004
G. Williamson McDiarmid and Rosyland Frazier
-
Teacher Training Rose Urban Exchange Program Evaluation 2003 Addendum
G. Williamson McDiarmid and Rosyland Frazier
-
Longitudinal Study of First-Year Students Rose Urban Rural Exchange Program
Williamson McDiarmid and Rosyland Frazier
The Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Alaska Anchorage annually evaluates components of the Rose Urban Rural Exchange Program, to determine how well the program is achieving its purpose. The program's goal is to build understanding and a statewide sense of community-by bringing urban students to rural Alaska and rural students to urban Alaska, to help them learn about each other's cultures....In 2004, the Institute of Social and Economic (ISER) proposed, for the first time, to evaluate not only how the program did in the current year, but also to evaluate the program's lasting effects by collecting survey and interview data from students who had participated in the first year of the program, 2001....This report describes the background and research design. We will discuss the issue of lasting program efficacy in a later report. This report has four chapters. Following this brief introductory chapter, Chapter 2 describes the scope of the longitudinal evaluation. Chapter 3 provides information about the evaluation design, including development of the data collection instruments. Chapter 4 presents our preliminary findings about some of the data we have collected to this point. The appendixes include the interview protocol, pre- and post-visit questionnaires, and the urban and rural tests of knowledge.
-
A Summary of Alaskool Web Site Survey Results: What's Useful and What Can Be Improved?
Suzanne Sharp and Katie Eberhart
"This report summarizes the results of a survey the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) and First Alaskans Institute (FAI) developed to determine how useful the Alaskool Web site- www.alaskool.org-is and how it might be improved. To understand the survey results, it's helpful to know the background of the Alaskool Web site. The Alaskool Web site is the product of the Alaska Native Curriculum and Teacher Development Project, designed in the late 1990s by Paul Ongtooguk and John Pingayak-two Native educators - and Bill McDiarmid, who at that time was the director of ISER. They saw that resources teachers and others needed for Alaska Native education were very scarce, and they proposed to fill the need by creating an online collection of materials on Alaska Native history, culture, and languages, as well as curricula and other products teachers and students could use. Such a collection, on a Web site, would not only bring together in one place a wide array of materials, but would also make them instantly accessible to residents of remote rural communities.
-
A Review of Alaska School District Cost Study
Bradford Tuck
The Alaska Legislature’s Legislative Budget and Audit Committee asked the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Alaska Anchorage to review the Alaska School District Cost Study. The American Institutes for Research (AIR) prepared that study for the legislative committee. The study was to provide a “geographic cost of education index” that the state could use to help equalize the purchasing power of educational dollars it allocates to school districts across Alaska. Costs of living can vary substantially in different areas of Alaska. The study, in two volumes plus supplemental materials, was released in January 2003 and supplemented in February 2003. Also, in a response dated April 11, 2003, AIR answered a number of questions that had been raised about the study.
-
Economic Significance of the Alaska Railroad
Bradford Tuck and Mary Killorin
This report estimates the economic effects of Alaska Railroad spending in Alaska, for both operations and capital projects. The Alaska Railroad is a major part of the transportation network in Alaska and also between Alaska and the Lower 48. It connects with rail service from the rest of the U. S. and Canada via its port facilities in Whittier and ships coal and naphtha to Asia via the port of Seward. The railroad carries both passengers and freight, but it is freight that accounts for most of the railroad’s operating revenue. It carries large volumes of a variety of freight. In recent years, petroleum products the railroad hauls from the North Pole refinery to the Anchorage area have made up much of its freight volume. For many years it carried several hundred thousand tons of coal per year between Healy and Seward, for export to Korea, and it continues to haul coal from Healy to Fairbanks. It also hauls a significant portion of the gravel used in the Anchorage bowl from the Mat-Su Valley. The railroad is able to carry these large volumes of freight more efficiently and at lower cost than trucks—and so it facilitates current economic activity and can help make future developments feasible. Our estimates of the economic effects of railroad spending in Alaska are based on annual average spending of $108 million from 2001 through 2003. If railroad spending increased, it would support more jobs and income; if spending dropped, it would cost the state jobs and income.
-
United or Divided Twins? The Political Economy of Beringia
Arlon R. Tussing and John Tichotsky
When the US purchased Alaska from the Russians in1867 it quickly stepped into Russia's role in the colonial relationship. The US exploited salmon as the primary base resource from about 1878. Gold was discovered in lode deposits in the 1880s in the southeast of Alaska (Juneau and Treadwell), about the same time as the Lena goldfields of Irkutsk began to step up operations. We anticipate that Alaska contains or has demonstrated most of the elements that we can expect to see in the foreseeable development of other post-Soviet Arctic regions, including Alaska's nearest neighbor Chukotka, one of Russia's poorest and least modernized regions. This article was written for the 'Beringia' issue of the Northern Expanses journal which was a joint effort of the US National Park Service as part of the International Decade of Indigenous People.
-
Challenges in Restructuring Alaska's Salmon Fisheries
Fran Ulmer and Gunnar Knapp
Over the past fifteen years, Alaska’s salmon industry has experienced dramatic losses in income, market share, permit and boat values, and tax revenues to communities and the state. The economic crisis in the salmon industry—driven by competition from farmed salmon and other factors—has prompted numerous task forces and summits to call for improved quality, new products, better marketing, and other measures to enable Alaska’s salmon industry to compete more effectively in world salmon markets. However, there has been relatively little discussion of restructuring Alaska’s salmon fisheries....In this paper, we argue that public debate and action on restructuring have been limited by several factors: the complexity and controversial nature of restructuring, the absence of leadership on this issue from either the industry or government, and the ambiguity of responsibility and authority within state government for the economic success of Alaska’s fisheries. The Board of Fisheries and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have a clear mandate to conserve Alaska’s salmon and authority to enact regulations necessary to achieve that objective. But that mandate and authority do not extend to the more complex and difficult objective of managing Alaska’s salmon resources for the “maximum benefit” of Alaskans, as the Alaska Constitution requires. Editor’s Note (September 2005): Fran Ulmer and Gunnar Knapp wrote this paper in November 2004. Near the end of the paper, they discuss the Chignik salmon cooperative and the then-pending Alaska Supreme Court decision about whether the Board of Fisheries had the authority to issue an allocation to the co-op. Page 34 says, “if the Supreme Court upholds the decision of the Superior Court [that the Board did have this authority], it will have the effect of extending the extent to which the board has clear authority to restructure fisheries for economic purposes.” Since the paper was written, there have been several court decisions affecting the status of the Chignik fishing cooperative. The fundamental legal issues at stake relate to the board’s authority and the legislature’s intent in the Limited Entry Act. As of fall 2005, the future of the co-op was uncertain, pending a final ruling by the Alaska Supreme Court. This continuing legal battle reinforces a central point of the paper: that absence of clear authority to make changes in fishery management represents an important obstacle to restructuring. The authors have also written a more recent short paper on restructuring, “Changing Alaska’s Salmon Harvesting System: What Are the Challenges?” in Understanding Alaska, Research Summary No. 5, September 2005.
-
The Morel Mushroom Industry in Alaska: Current Status and Potential
Tricia Wurtz and Amy Lynn Wiita
Morel mushrooms (Morchella spp.) collected in the U.S. Pacific Northwest are a non-timber forest product with considerable economic significance. Little information exists on the commercial harvest potential of morel mushrooms in Alaska’s boreal forest. We investigated current uses of morels in Alaska, the potential for and constraints to development of an Alaska morel industry and potential resource management and business development implications. We found that the morel mushroom industry in Alaska is small with few morel harvesters. Morels are harvested for personal and commercial use. Commercial morel harvesting is minimal due to the inaccessibility and unreliable production of morels and the long distances to markets. Permits are rarely issued by state or federal land managers for morel harvesting. The high capital investment for buyers, delayed return on the investment, need for direct product-marketing and creative marketing skills and an inconsistent supply of morels are prominent reasons there are not more businesses involved in an Alaska morel industry. Alaska appears to be best suited for a dried morel industry and a limited fresh morel market near cities and in local communities where there is a demand in local restaurants. Dried morels from Alaska could be marketed creatively and developed as a small cottage industry that capitalizes on the existing unique opportunities in Alaska such as wild food production, tourism and organic and Alaska Native product marketing.
-
FAA Capstone Program: Phase I Interim Safety Study (2002)
Matthew Berman
The Capstone Phase I area is a geographic region from 58° to 64° north latitude and 155° to 167° west longitude (Figure 1-1, next page). Nearly all the Capstone Phase I ground systems and avionics are in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta within the Capstone area. Bethel is the aviation center of the delta. It is also the largest community in the Y-K Delta and the economic, governmental, and cultural center of the region. Aniak to the northeast and St. Marys to the northwest are also economic and mail distribution hubs for the delta. The economic, social, political, cultural, and regulatory factors affecting aviation safety in the Y-K Delta—and the Capstone-equipped aircraft flying there—are the focus of this report. The Capstone area does include communities outside the Y-K Delta—Iliamna, Unalakleet, Dillingham, King Salmon and McGrath— but the focus of Capstone activity is aircraft and flight activity based in Bethel, Aniak, and St. Marys. This report builds on two previous reports, Air Safety in Southwest Alaska – Capstone Baseline Safety Report (baseline report) and the Capstone Phase I Interim Safety Study, 2000/2001 (interim study).
-
Sustainable Development and Sustainable Income from Alaska's Resources
Matthew Berman
I consider the definition and measurement of sustainable development for a resource rich region such as Alaska, reviewing the evolution of so-called green accounting and discussing appropriate applications to small open regional economies. I then investigate how much of the rapid economic growth Alaska experienced in the three decades following passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) constituted sustainable development. Estimates of sustainable income suggest that even after adjusting for depletion of nonrenewable resources, the state’s economy was nearly three times larger at the end of the 1990s than it had been in 1971. Although oil assets declined, tourism, air cargo, and other sustainable industries grew, as did income from state savings accounts set aside from petroleum revenues. Despite the growth of Native corporations created under ANCSA, the locally controlled portion of Alaska's economy continues to decline.
-
FAA Capstone Program: Phase II Baseline Report (Southeast Alaska)
Matthew Berman, Wayne Daniels, Jerry Brian, Alexandra Hill, Leonard Kirk, Stephanie Martin, Jason Seger, and Amy Wiita
This report provides the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) with information on air safety and aviation infrastructure in southeast Alaska as of December 31, 2002. The data will establish a baseline to enable the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) to conduct an independent evaluation of how the Capstone program affects aviation safety in the region. The FAA contracted with UAA’s Institute of Social and Economic Research and Aviation Technology Division to do a variety of training and evaluation tasks related to the Capstone program. The program is a joint effort of industry and the FAA to improve aviation safety and efficiency in select regions of Alaska, through government-furnished avionics equipment and improvements in ground infrastructure.
-
Fiscal and Economic Analysis of Homer Town Square Proposed Development Alternatives
Steve Colt
This report presents a fiscal and economic analysis of potential development within the Homer Town Square area. We first consider current land use patterns and tax revenues. We then estimate the fiscal and economic effects of a development scenario provided by Christopher Beck and Associates. Fiscal effects are measured by property and sales tax revenue. Economic effects are measured by employment within Homer. Finally, we report empirical results from a broad national sample of similar efforts to promote economic development and quality of life through improvements to downtown areas and commercial centers. The “existing trends” scenario attempts to account for trends and events that are likely occur in the absence of specific new development initiatives in the study area. The “town square” scenario accounts for changes that will happen with the focused development of a town square development initiative. The difference between the two scenarios in a variable of interest – such as property taxes -- is the effect that we can reasonably attribute to the town square development itself. Commercial taxable sales within the study area increase over 5 years to become about 50% higher in 2008 under the town square scenario, yielding about $1.2 million in additional sales tax revenue to Homer and an additional $680,000 of additional sales tax revenue to the Kenai Peninsula Borough. Property taxes from the study area increase by 2008 to a level 35% higher than under existing trends, yielding an additional $79,000 in property tax revenue to the city and an additional $133,000 in property tax revenues to the borough, college, and hospital.
Printing is not supported at the primary Gallery Thumbnail page. Please first navigate to a specific Image before printing.
