Many APU students work in cooperation with outside organizations in the design and completion of their research theses. Government agencies, in particular, can be an important source for research priorities, logistical and financial support, and outside expertise. To facilitate this sort of collaboration, APU has joined a research consortium of Alaskan universities and federal government agencies. The North and West Alaska Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CESU) is designed to facilitate and streamline participation of university researchers (especially including graduate students) in scientific studies by federal land managers.

APU’s membership in the CESU provides students with an exceptional opportunity to do collaborative research with the following federal land management agencies:

• Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
• U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
• National Park Service
• Minerals Management Service
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• U.S. Forest Service
• Natural Resources Conservation Service

The offices and laboratories of The Alaska Science Center, ASC, (http://alaska.usgs.gov/), is located on APU’s campus within the U.S. Geological Survey. Many faculty as well as undergraduate and graduate students have worked and are currently working collaboratively with staff scientists at the ASC. Such work has involved graduate theses, senior projects and junior practica in hydro-geology, vulcanology, glaciology, and ecological genetics. The close proximity of APU and the ASC and the history of productive cooperation have been of benefit to both institutions and is a relationship that is sure to continue to grow and be productive to both institutions and to the greater world beyond.

A ways south of Anchorage lies the complex Kenai Peninsula, containing Alaska’s original, still producing, oil and gas fields, important fishing ports, and a wide variety of habitats, from protected coves and bays to rugged outer coasts, and from old-growth, temperate rainforests to boreal forests to tundra and glacial systems. Formal courses, individual study, and faculty research have used all of these and more over the course of recent years. As important areas for fishery, forestry, recreation and ecosystem services, the Kenai cannot be ignored by the Environmental Science Department. The Kenai offers myriad opportunities for APU’s students and faculty. Routinely, collaboration between APU and scientists at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge (http://www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/index.cfm?id=74525)has led to productive learning experiences and several scientific publications. Also in the area is Kenai Fjords National Park (http://www.nps.gov/state/ak/), a beautiful park that allows us to study physical and biological processes from the termini of tide-water glaciers to the glacial environment of an inland ice cap, The Harding Icefield.

APU’s Marine Biology and Environmental Science classes are regular users of the Kasitsna Bay Marine Laboratory (http://www.ccfhr.noaa.gov/about/kasitsna/welcome.html). This beautifully situated laboratory sits across Kachemak Bay (dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/kbay/kbay.htm) from Homer.

Closer to home, the Bureau of land Management maintains the Campbell creek Science Center (http://www.blm.gov/ak/st/en/prog/sciencecenter.html), a science education center focused on education of the public respect to boreal and watershed dynamics. APU students are constantly in the mix at the center, conducting research or employed as educators. Slightly more than two miles southeast of campus, the Science Center sits in a wilderness setting where caution is required to avoid bumping into moose, or, in the summer months, bears fishing for salmon.

Also in our area are offices and labs of the National Marine Fisheries Service (http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/). Currently, students from the Department are participating in a project to monitor movements of the Cook Inlet Beluga Whale population. This population has been in decline for undetermined reasons and has been proposed for listing as endangered.

In the town of Palmer, 40 miles North on the Glenn highway, several students over the years have worked on agriculturally related research projects through the auspices of the Matanuska Experimental Farm. Originally administered by the USDA, this facility has been operated by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks since 1931.