KUAC - Fairbanks

Russian scientists have purchased yearling bison from a Delta Junction area ranch that are headed to Pleistocene Park, a 20-square-kilometer research plot in eastern Siberia. Nikita Zimov and his father Sergey are trying to recreate an ice age ecosystem.

“We know that main four species were mammoths, bison, horse and reindeer. And bison were actually the most dominant,” Nikita Zimov said.

A dozen bison are set to be transported as part of the geo-engineering project. The bison are central to the experiment to see if herd animals can help prevent melting of carbon rich permafrost.

“Animals when they forage trample down the snow,” Zimov said. “So when animals trample down the snow, they allow this cold to penetrate, and then the winter soils freeze much deeper.”

The Alaska bison will complement horses, musk oxen, reindeer and yaks the Zimovs previously transplanted to Pleistocene Park.

Zimov said grasses that proliferate on trammeled earth reflect more sunlight, store more carbon, and dry underlying soils, reducing production of the powerful greenhouse gas methane. It’s a small scale exercise with potentially global implications, and worth pursuing, according to ecologist Terry Chapin of Fairbanks.

“It takes the actual experiment to determine what the outcome will be. And I think that’s the value of Pleistocene Park.”

Chapin, an accomplished researcher of the ecological impacts of climate change, has visited the park, knows the Zimovs and is helping with the effort to transport the bison.

“They’re going to build the crates that’ll carry the bison. And they’re going to build those in our garage,” Chapin said. “And an 11-month old bison is, like, bigger that you would expect. They weigh about 500 pounds. They don’t like to be confined so they’re difficult to deal with. They’re kind of like little furry Tasmanian devils with horns.”

Luke Griswold Tergis of Haines is making a documentary about Pleistocene Park, and handling a lot of the Alaska side logistics. He connected Zimov with the Stevens Village bison farm near Delta Junction.

“As a favor, I was like, ‘Oh, you know, Nikita — let me — I’ll just call some people in Alaska and see if anyone has any bison for sale,” he said.

Ben Stevens with Tanana Chiefs Conference said he knew right away he could probably help. He said he feels good about tribally raised bison going to Pleistocene Park.

“Because it’s restoring an animal to the wild,” Stevens said.

The bison are quarantined in preparation for travel to Siberia. Zimov doesn’t have a set a departure date, but has early June in mind at the latest.

Zimov said he’s working to secure an air carrier to fly the bison to Siberia, and raising money online to cover the remaining half of the $200,000 project cost.

About 400 people from around Alaska and elsewhere converged on the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel and Conference Center this week to talk about how residents of the state’s rural and remote communities can reduce high energy costs during the 20th Rural Energy Conference.

Organizers say turnout for this year’s conference is good and interest is keen in finding solutions to the growing problem of sky-high energy costs in Alaskan communities located far off the grid.

Gwen Holdmann is the director of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power at UAF, which helps the Alaska Energy Authority organize the biennial conference.

“What this conference is really about is it’s about bringing people together to share experiences, share stories on what works, what doesn’t work, what direction they’re going,” Holdmann said.

Holdmann said organizers also try to ensure conferees “have access to the kind of resources that they need to make sure their projects are developed in a successful way.”

Holdmann has attended all 20 of the events, and they’ve evolved in recent years as technological solutions to the problem of high-energy costs have emerged.

“Twenty years ago, there was really not that much going on in terms of innovative projects, integration of renewables,” Holdmann said. “There really wasn’t too much happening. There was a lot of interest, but not much was occurring at that time. And over time, that’s really changed.”

Holdmann said earlier conferences focused on improving existing power-generating systems.

That changed a few years ago when the price of diesel and fuel oil rose sharply, and utilities – especially those that serve smaller communities – started looking for alternatives.

“After we saw the fuel spikes in 2008, there was a huge increase in activity,” Holdmann said.

Holdmann said conferees are talking a lot more about employing technologies that improve efficiencies.

About renewable-energy sources such as woody biomass, wind and solar to reduce the use of diesel to generate power. And she says industry is taking notice.

“There’s a lot of interest from companies in using Alaska as kind of a first-adopter, first-mover sort of market,” Holdmann said, “because our energy prices are higher, and so things work here today in ways that they don’t necessarily work from an economic standpoint in other places in the United States right now.”

Renewable Energy Alaska Project executive director Chris Rose agrees Alaska has become a leader in improving the micro-grids that distribute power to small isolated communities.

Alaska is still catching up on using alternative energy to generate heat and power, he said.

“In the Lower 48 and in much the rest of the world, renewable energy is actually mainstream,” Rose said. “It’s moved further and faster than even in places in Alaska.”

Rose said the state has more than 70 alternative-energy technology projects.

The growing use of those technologies is reflected in the presentations being given at the conference – and the conversations going on in the hallways.

Rose said those conversations focus on “how to make those projects better. How are they performing? What can we do on the human-capacity side to make sure that we’ve got the right operations and maintenance? What can we be doing on an ongoing basis to update control systems and marry the diesel engines to the renewable-energy project, whatever that might be?”

Both Rose and Holdmann agree that Alaskans will have to leverage the state’s growing reputation as a proving ground for microgrids and renewable energy, because state and federal funding, like the Alaska Energy Authority’s Renewable Energy Fund, has dried up.

Alaskans must look to the private sector, Holdmann said.

“Some of our rural communities have the highest energy costs anywhere in the United States,” Holdmann said. “And while that’s a real challenge for us, it actually presents this opportunity in terms of being able to test new technologies, really gain expertise in that area and potentially be able to leverage our expertise as Alaskans into other emerging places.”

The Rural Energy Conference continues through noon Thursday at the Westmark.

The killing of 10 wolves by a single hunter north of the Denali Highway, has raised new calls for protection of the animals in the Denali National Park region.

Photos of an unidentified hunter with an AR-style rifle and a snow machine, surrounded by 10 wolf carcasses have circulated online.

State Division of Wildlife Conservation Director Bruce Dale said the state was alerted to the February kill, which occurred on state land 70 miles east of the park, where the wolf hunting bag limit is 10.

”The harvest was reported and the hides were checked in,” Dale said. “All laws were complied with as far as the troopers were concerned.”

Biologist and wildlife advocate Rick Steiner said the mass killing of wolves and other predators has no place in modern Alaska.

“I think the majority of Alaskans will find this sort of thing reprehensible,” Steiner said. “But, at the very least, it shouldn’t be permitted anywhere near Denali National Park.”

Some online comments applaud the wolf kill as a benefit to moose and caribou, and Dale defends the high bag limit for wolves, citing the species resiliency.

”A pack of six can double in size with a single litter,” Dale said.

Dale said kills by other wolves or people disrupt packs, but also result in dispersal that leads to formation of new family groups.

The 10-wolf kill occurred far from an area along Denali’s northeastern boundary, recently closed to wolf harvest due to an above average take this season.

Gov. Bill Walker is inviting businesspersons from around the state who are interested in boosting trade with Alaska’s largest international trading partner to come along on a China trade mission to be launched in May.

A member of the Walker administration said  the governor is especially interested in bringing along representatives of the mining and tourism industries.

For the past seven years, China has been Alaska’s biggest export market.

The state sold more than $1.3 billion in goods and services to China last year. Most of that, about $865 million worth, was for seafood and other ocean products, followed by $356 million in mineral ore.

“They are a key trading partner with Alaska, and I think that’s why the governor sees great opportunities,” state Transportation Commissioner Marc Luiken said.

Luiken said zinc from the Red Dog Mine in northwestern Alaska accounts for a lot of those mineral exports, along with precious metals.

He said the governor believes the state’s mining industry could sell more of its products  to China, and Walker hopes the industry will be well represented on the trade mission, set for May 19-26.

“There are several industries in the state that would benefit from better connections with customers in China,” Luiken said. “I think he’s open to whoever would be interested in participating.”

Luiken said the governor hopes that’ll also include representatives of the tourism industry.

The commissioner said he’s working with Chinese authorities to establish direct flights from China to Alaska to accommodate the nation’s growing interest in visiting Alaska, year-round.

“A lot of the Chinese tourists coming to Alaska are coming in the winter, coming to Fairbanks,” Luiken said.

Deb Hickok, president and CEO of Explore Fairbanks, the area’s tourism-promotion organization, said tourists from China and other Asian countries are increasingly coming to Alaska during the winter to view the aurora borealis.

“Chinese tourism for Fairbanks is really driven by the aurora, so we’re seeing Chinese guests come from late summer all the way through to the spring,” Hickok said. “The lion’s share of our guests do come in the five-month summer period, but we have seen growth in winter tourism.”

Hickok said winter tourism has grown so much over the past 10 years that it now generates 45 percent of the revenue Fairbanks gets from tourism annually.

She appreciates the governor’s efforts to promote greater tourism with China.

Hickok would like to go along on the trade mission, but she got a schedule conflict due to a major conference she’ll be attending.

But Hickok added, “We absolutely are researching and solidifying plans to intensify our efforts in mainland China.”

Information about how to sign up for the governor’s China trade mission is available on the website of the Alaska Office of International Trade, which along with the state Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development is organizing the trip.

Information also is available on the Office of the Governor’s website.

State air quality regulators are inviting people who live in and around the Fairbanks North Star Borough’s air-pollution-plagued areas to look at draft documents that outline the problem and proposed solutions. A local air quality advocate said it’s important residents read the documents to understand proposals to clean up the air — and to participate in finding solutions.

State Air Quality Division Director Denise Koch said the documents made public by her agency Thursday are drafts that when completed later this year will form the basis of the State Implementation Plan, or SIP, that will lay out how the Fairbanks area can reduce its unhealthy, fine particulate emissions.

“These are the building blocks, if you will, of the SIP,” she said.

Koch said agency officials posted the documents to promote an exchange of information between them and the public. She said some documents are incomplete.

“There are data gaps,” she said, “and we’re asking the public for additional information.”

The documents have dozens of references to those gaps, such as how much number 1 and number 2 fuel oil is used, broken down into residential and nonresidential use. Koch said the agency also wanted to inform people about how it will oversee local efforts to reduce fine particulate emissions to attain federal air quality standards in what’s now called the Serious Nonattainment Area.

“We want complete transparency,” she said. “We know that this is a very important issue to the community, and we want people to be able to look at our early thinking.”

Longtime local air-quality advocate Jimmy Fox said he’s already reading through the documents, and he urges all other area residents to give them a look, so they can appreciate the complexity of the problem and understand the measures the Air Quality Division is planning and considering.

“This is the chance to kind of kick the tires on these draft documents and help the state come up with an implementation plan that we can live with,” he said.

Fox said it would behoove residents to get to know the many different strategies that’ll be employed under the SIP to clean up the air in the nonattainment area — and that are sure to raise eyebrows. Including requiring installation of emissions-control technology on stationary sources such as power plants, which would boost the cost of electricity for ratepayers. Also, possible requirements on the use of ultralow-sulfur heating oil, a costlier but cleaner burning fuel.

“What I’m reading here is that preliminary estimates is that switching to that (fuel) to help address the problem would cost the average household and extra 3 to 400 bucks a year in heating oil costs,” he said.

Fox said locals can help the state understand more about the situation in Fairbanks, and could provide information to regulators that would help them develop a better plan that would work for this area.

“What makes this plan successful is our ownership of that,” he said, “and I hope that all the citizens in the borough don’t shy away from this opportunity.”

Fox said some portions of the documents are fairly technical and can make for dense reading. But he said overall, they should be pretty understandable to most folks.

Koch said the Air Quality Division wants comments on the documents before May 23.

A Fairbanks grand jury has indicted 13 Fairbanks Correctional Center inmates on rioting and criminal mischief charges related to an Aug. 17 riot at the jail.

The inmates took over a part of the jail for about an hour and a half before surrendering after they were tear-gassed by members of two tactical police units that were called in.