Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station

Palmer Research Center

Matanuska Experiment Farm
The Matanuska Experiment Farm provides a site in Southcentral Alaska for research in sustainable agriculture, land reclamation and other environmental issues. The Experiment Farm is located on Trunk Road off the George Parks Highway about 36 miles north of Anchorage. It includes 260 acres of cultivated land and 800 acres of forest land for research or demonstration purposes, including barns, feed storage facilities and pasture land. The Experiment Farm has a complete complement of farm equipment to produce and harvest grain, forage (both hay and silage), and other crops. There are also field and laboratory facilities for research on soils, plants and livestock, and an adjacent greenhouse facility, operated by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources. This facility includes a modern headhouse and physical plant capable of supporting six greenhouse units.

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Laboratory

• 8,500 square feet
• Houses:
  • Soil and Plant Analysis Lab
  • Soil Morphology and Classification Lab
  • Plant and Range Science Lab
  • Plant Pathology Lab

     

• Equipped with modern analytical instruments
• Supports research in horticulture, agronomy, forestry, plant pathology, arctic soils, revegetation, animal science and various environmental research projects
• Available for contract analysis by other university units, public agencies and the private sector

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History

• 1917: Established as a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Experiment Station
• 1931: Transferred to the University of Alaska

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Agronomy

• Soil research and managing crops for sustainable agriculture emphasize:
  • Plant breeding, especially developing small grain varieties adapted to northern latitudes;
  • Forage quality including developing alternative forages with superior nutritional qualities for high latitudes;
  • Soil science involving classifying arctic and subarctic soils, carbon cycling in arctic soils in relation to global change, cooperative Russian-Alaska research on permafrost-affected soils in Alaska and eastern Siberia
  • Range science and research ecology on reclaiming and revegetating lands disturbed by oil and mining development

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Horticulture

• Horticultural--Alaska's largest agricultural industry--research focuses on:
  • Evaluating potato varieties suitable for Alaska's growing conditions
  • Assessing and controlling potato diseases
  • Evaluating alternative organic fertilizers
  • Evaluating lettuce varieties for disease and tip burn resistance
  • Evaluating alternative vegetable crops

Palmer Faculty/Researchers

Donald E. Carling

 

Dot Helm

 

Doo-Hong Min-as

 

G. Allen Mitchell

 

Chien-Lu Ping

 

Horticulture ­ Vacant

 

Revegetation ­ Vacant

 

Plant Breeding ­ Vacant

 

 

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