Sustainable North

From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Friday, April 23, 2010: Two prototype homes will be built this summer in remote Alaska villages to test construction methods and energy savings as researchers look for low-cost housing. An eight-sided home meant to resemble traditional Yup’ik dwellings will be built in Quinhagak, a rainy Western Alaska coastal village where [...]

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Friday, March 5, 2010, 4-5PM Morris Thompson Cultural Center Dr. Sven Haakanson Jr. discusses the knowledge and abilities of Alaska’s Indigenous people to design and construct complex equipment, housing and tools without the use of modern technology. The efforts of those preserving this knowledge for future generations will also be discussed. Click here for more [...]

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From Alaska Dispatch, Tuesday, February 23, 2010: On Tuesday, the village of Unalakleet, seated on Alaska’s northwest coast, celebrated the town’s newest energy force — turbine number six. The awakening of the high-tech wind catcher completes the installation of the town’s new wind farm, which has already saved the village tens of thousands of dollars [...]

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From The Tundra Drums, Wednesday, February 17, 2010: Houses in Quinhagak battered by decades of fierce wet winds might soon be replaced by a new model that hearkens back to traditional Native sod houses. At a meeting last week, village leaders in the Southwest Alaska community accepted a preliminary plan for an energy-efficient home that [...]

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From The Associated Press, Friday, February 19, 2010: The attorney general and researchers at the University of Alaska Anchorage are attributing high gasoline and heating fuel costs in rural Alaska to market conditions. Two independent investigations say small scale distribution over great distances in challenging locations appears to be the main culprit in rural-urban price [...]

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From Alaska Dispatch, Thursday, February 11, 2010: In terms of punctuation marks, Railbelt natural gas supplies are a bit of question mark, and fuel prices in the Bush are a big exclamation point. So, it’s safe to assume Alaska’s electricity producers and consumers would appreciate a little stability. At least one company wants to transform [...]

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From The Tundra Drums, Monday, December 28, 2009: The City of Bethel received a 2009 Community Award of Excellence in the Public Involvement category from the Alaska Municipal League for the city’s development of the Bethel Community Garden in Bethel, according to a written statement from John Sargent, the city’s grant development manager. Announcement of [...]

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From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Sunday, November 29, 2009: An Alaska teacher’s dream to build a greenhouse so students can grow fresh veggies in the village of Quinhagak will likely become reality thanks to a $10,000 grant from former celebrity talk show host Jenny Jones. In a surprise phone call, Jones rang up teacher Sherry [...]

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While meandering along a garden(ing) path through the Internet, I came across a great publication produced by the University of Alaska Fairbanks School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences and the State of Alaska Plant Materials Center. It’s called “Alaska Biofuels Past, Present and Future” and includes a short history of the use of plant [...]

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From the New York Times on Wednesday, February 18, 2009: Beyond the fishing boats, the snug homes and the tanks of diesel fuel marking this Eskimo village on the Bering Sea, three huge wind turbines tower over the tundra. Their blades spin slowly in a breeze cold enough to freeze skin. One of the nation’s [...]

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