The Alaska Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station (AFES) is administered by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The station includes the Fairbanks Experiment Farm, the Matanuska Experiment Farm & Extension Center and the Delta Junction field research site. The Georgeson Botanical Garden and the Reindeer Research Program are at the Fairbanks farm. 

Researchers associated with the experiment station focus on creating knowledge and solving problems in agriculture, natural resources and the forest sciences. State and federal agencies, private industry, and the university sponsor and fund AFES research. Here are summaries of their current research in agriculture and horticulture, forestry, ecosystem management and climate change, energy, animal management and meat production, human impacts on the environment, and youth and families.

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Agroborealis Research Highlights

  • Jessie Young-Robertson

    Measuring water content

    Fall 2019
    While studying how trees take up snowmelt and rainwater, Jessie Young-Robertson noticed dramatic seasonal variations in the water content of trees, particularly in deciduous trees like birch and aspen.
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  • Glenna Gannon harvesting brussels sprouts

    Testing vegetable varieties

    Spring 2019
     Finding vegetable varieties that grow well in Alaska has been a goal of experiment stations from their earliest days. Agronomist C.C. Georgeson published his first circular that recommended vegetable varieties in 1906, a year before the Fairbanks Experiment Station and farm opened.
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    Resource management

    Fall 2018
    The village of Savoonga owns a herd of more than 3,000 reindeer, and a decreasing supply of walrus and other marine mammals has the St. Lawrence Island community thinking more about its reindeer as a source of food and employment.
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Weather vane at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm

Fairbanks Experiment Farm staff have been collecting weather data since 1911.