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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Charting New Courses for Alaska Salmon Fisheries: the Legal Waters
Paula Cullenberg and Mary Killorin
Alaska’s commercial salmon industry is in an economic crisis. Competition from farmed salmon, changes in consumer demand, and a worldwide economic slowdown—together with smaller sockeye salmon runs—are reducing the value of Alaska’s salmon harvest. This crisis has prompted discussions among fishermen, processors, fishery managers, and government officials about how to help the salmon industry. Part of the discussion has focused on options for “restructuring” the management of salmon fisheries to reduce costs, increase value, or steer more of the benefits to Alaskans and their communities. To help Alaskans better understand the legal and constitutional issues associated with restructuring the salmon fisheries, the University of Alaska’s Marine Advisory Program and Institute for Social and Economic Research, along with the Washington Sea Grant Program, sponsored a workshop in October 2002. Lawyers with expertise in Alaska natural resources and fisheries law answered questions about different options for restructuring.
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Effects of the 2002 Chignik Cooperative: A Survey of Chignik Salmon Permit Holders
Patricia DeRoche, Alexandra Hill, Gunnar Knapp, and Darla Silver
This report presents the results of a survey of Chignik Salmon Purse Seine permit holders about management changes in the Chignik salmon fishery and the effects of the 2002 Chignik salmon cooperative. In January 2002, the Alaska Board of Fisheries passed regulations that established criteria and management measures for a cooperative fishery in the Chignik purse seine salmon fishery. Under the regulations, if 51 or more Chignik permit holders chose to join a cooperative, the cooperative would receive an allocation of a percentage of the Chignik sockeye salmon harvest. The purpose of the regulations was to allow permit holders the opportunity to fish cooperatively to reduce costs, improve quality and increase value by reducing the number of vessels fishing and slowing down the fishery. Permit holders who chose not to join the cooperative could fish in an “open” or “independent” fishery with a separate allocation. Subsequently the Chignik Seafood Producers Alliance (CSPA) formed as a cooperative in accordance with the new regulations. In 2002, 77 Chignik permit holders joined the Co-op, 22 permit holders chose to fish independently in the open fishery, and 1 permit holder did not join the cooperative and also did not fish. This report is based on the 89 survey responses that we received by January 15, 2003. (An earlier report was based on the 80 responses received by December 3, 2002.)
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Program Evaluation: Rose Urban Rural Sister School 2003
Rosyland Frazier and G. Williamson McDiarmid
The Sister School Exchange, along with the Student Exchange and Teacher Training programs, make up the Rose Urban Rural Program. The Rose Urban Rural Program is made possible by the Alaska Humanities Forum and with funding from the U.S. Department of Education. It is intended to build understanding and a statewide sense of community by bringing urban students and teachers to rural Alaska, and rural students and teachers to urban Alaska, to learn about each other's cultures. The Sister School Exchange provides urban and rural students with an opportunity to visit each other's classrooms and communities and form a foundation for sustainable relationships. Sponsoring teachers use a curriculum, developed by the program, intended to help students understand their host community's culture and history. Urban and rural teachers and a delegation of students visit each other's schools and communities for one week.
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Executive Summary: Rose Urban Rural Student Exchange Evaluation 2003
Rosyland Frazier and Williamson McDiarmid
About 21 urban and 19 rural students participated in the third year of the program. Urban students traveled from Anchorage to the villages of Shishmaref, St. Paul, Kotlik, Akiachak, New Stuyahok, Togiak, Huslia, Russian Mission, Port Heiden, and Wainwright. Rural students from these same villages traveled to Anchorage. In most cases, parents of students who traveled from Anchorage hosted the visiting rural students, and vice-versa. Parents also typically attended orientation sessions....This is the first year that rural students came to Anchorage in the summer. In the past rural students have come to Anchorage in the spring, while school is still in session, as part of the spring exchange. This year the Babiche Cultural Exchange organized a two-week summer day camp orientation and program, bringing together urban and rural students. The students participated in numerous activities that helped them get to know each other, encouraged team building; and explored many aspects of cultural similarities and differences.
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The Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge: Economic Importance
Oliver Scott Goldsmith, Jerry Brian, and Alexandra Hill
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Alaska Electric Power Statistics (with Alaska Energy Balance) 1960-2001
Scott Goldsmith
Prior to 1985, the federal Alaska Power Administration published the Alaska Electric Power Statistics. Then, the Alaska Energy Authority (formerly the Alaska Power Authority) began gathering statistical data and publishing this annual report. In 1988, the Alaska Electric Power Statistics report became a combined effort between the Alaska Systems Coordinating Council and the Alaska Energy Authority. Beginning in 1993, the report became a joint effort between the Alaska Systems Coordinating Council and the Department of Community and Regional Affairs, Division of Energy. After the 1995 no further reports were published until this year. This twenty-second edition of the Alaska Electric Power Statistics has been prepared by the Institute of Social and Economic Research of the University of Alaska Anchorage with funding provided by the Alaska Energy Authority, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska, and the Denali Commission. The data is presented using the same regional definitions as in past reports, but since some utilities have operations that span more than a single region, their combined operations characteristics are also reported. In addition we present a breakdown of operations between the Railbelt utilities, the Power Cost Equalization utilities, and all other. Finally, an entirely new section has been added to the report that describes the production and consumption of all energy in the state.
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Anchorage Economic Forecast, 2003
Scott Goldsmith
Anchorage’s economic performance for 2002 was in sharp contrast to the national economy which saw a decline in jobs and a marked increase in the unemployment rate. The Anchorage unemployment rate inched up during the year to an annual average of 4.6 percent but remained well below the national average of 5.8. This report provides a forecast for job growth in sectors that are currently important to the sponsors of the report. AEDC predicts 1,750 jobs will be added to the Anchorage economy in 2003, an increase of 1.3 percent. As in years past, most of these new jobs will be in the fast growing service sector. Trade, utilities, government, and construction will also contribute to the growth. Petroleum and manufacturing employment should remain constant. Anchorage will continue to outperform the US economy. This forecast was updated in July 2003. That update summarizes changes by mid-year.
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The Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge: Economic Importance
Scott Goldsmith, Jerry Brian, and N/A Hill
In this regional economic assessment, we focus primarily on an economic significance analysis; we present a brief economic impact analysis as well. Both are useful for policy analysis, but each measures a different dimension of economic activity. The economic significance of a refuge is a measure of the total number of jobs and the total household income generated by expenditures associated with the management of each refuge, by expenditures of refuge visitors, and by expenditures for the harvest and other use of refuge resources. In Alaska these expenditures directly create jobs for Fish and Wildlife Service employees, for people employed in businesses serving the recreation industry, and for commercial fishermen. Additional jobs are created by expenditures of the Fish and Wildlife Service and by businesses for procuring supplies and services. As these government and private sector workers spend their incomes, jobs in other sectors of the economy are created through a process known as the multiplier effect. The total number of jobs created by expenditures for management and use of the refuge is consequently greater than just the number directly created. The purpose of this study is to develop a regional economic assessment of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Alaska. This assessment will be used to help update the Comprehensive Conservation Plan for the refuge, as required under section 304 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA).
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Alaska's Budget: Where the Money Came From and Went, 1990-2002
Scott Goldsmith, Linda Leask, and Mary Killorin
Alaska’s state budget increased from $4.1 billion in 1990 to $7.4 billion in 2002. But who paid for that budget growth? W e know the state’ s oil revenues dropped by about half in the past decade—cr eating big holes in the budget—and Alaska has no personal income or other broad-based taxes. This paper is descriptive: we don’t mean to imply that particular changes were good or bad, or that some programs got too much or not enough money . Its’ part of a larger effort to help Alaskans understand the budget.
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Sustainable Utilities in Rural Alaska Effective Management, Maintenance, and Operation of Electric, Water, Sewer, Bulk Fuel, Solid Waste Final Report Part A: Overview
Scott Goldsmith, Amy Wiita, Steve Colt, and Mark Foster
Two reports are provided Part A is an overview - reliable and affordable utility services remain out of reach for thousands of Alaskans and between $1.5 and $2 billion of public investment is potentially at risk due to the inadequate operations, maintenance, and management of electric, water, sewer, bulk fuel, and solid waste utilities in many small rural Alaska communities. This report provides a foundation of facts and ideas that can be used to move toward sustainable utilities in these places. Part B contains supporting material and examines the maintenance, management, and operation of rural Alaska utilities.
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Understanding Alaska State Finances: What Citizens Want to Know and How to Convey that Information Effectively
Sharman Haley
Fiscal policy is a major dilemma for this state. State oil revenues have been declining since 1982. Despite cuts in the state’s general fund spending--down from a high of $2.9 billion in FY1982 to $2.5 billion in FY2002--the state budget has been in deficit eight of the last ten years. The FY 2002 deficit constituted nearly one third of the state general fund budget. At the current rate, the Constitutional Budget Reserve—the savings account which is being drawn down to cover the deficit—will be exhausted in about two years. Political opinion is so fragmented on the question of what to do that the legislature has been unable to forge a fiscal plan to address the issue. Indeed, the very nature of the problem is contested. Results from a state wide fiscal opinion survey last year (Moore, 2001) suggest that voter attitudes are a major factor in the current policy impasse. While 80 percent feel that some kind of fiscal plan is needed, only one third are very likely to support some kind of plan involving taxes and permanent fund earnings, another one third somewhat likely to support such a plan, and one third not very or not at all likely. Analysis of the data shows that more informed voters, with a more accurate understanding of some basic facts about Alaska’s fiscal structure, are more likely to support a plan involving taxes and permanent fund earnings.
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Evaluation of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Water and Sanitation Project in the Village of Buckland, Alaska - Phase 2
Sharman Haley and Amy Wiita
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the lead agency for a multi-year sanitation pilot project in the village of Buckland, in Alaska's Northwest Arctic Borough. Providing safe drinking water and sewage disposal for rural communities has been and continues to be a major public policy goal in Alaska. The federal and state governments have spent more than $1 billion building sewer and water facilities in rural Alaska in the past several decades, but many unsafe and inadequate water and sewer systems remain. A wide range of government agencies and Native organizations have been involved in rural sanitation projects, but until recently one notable exception was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The corps has regulatory authority over and provides technical expertise for water-related projects across Alaska—for example, oil, gas, and mining activities that affect wetlands. But historically it has not been involved in providing sanitation systems in rural Alaska. That changed in 1997, when Congress asked the corps to apply its expertise with cold region design, construction, and operation of water and sewer facilities to projects in rural Alaska. This report evaluates just the planning and the phase one design activities of that pilot project. The Environmental Protection Agency hired the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) to do this evaluation.
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An Assessment of Safety Belt Use In Alaska Summer 2003
Virgene Hanna
To be eligible for certain federal grants, states must document levels of compliance with seatbelt laws. During June, July and August of 2003, ISER researchers recorded and analyzed seat belt use by drivers and front seat passengers in both passenger cars and trucks. In the sample area (which includes 85 percent of the state's population), 80 percent of drivers and 76 percent of outboard passengers were wearing seatbelts. these numbers reflect an increase of just over 13 percent over what was observed in 2002.
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