This project supports the technical development of a mobile application for identifying and reporting invasive plant species in Alaska.  It will result in a portable, digital version of a field guide that can be easily updated and that supports integration of reports into the Alaska Exotic Plants Information Clearinghouse (AKEPIC).  Under development for both Android and iOS operating systems, the app has the potential to increase the public’s knowledge of invasive plants, as well an improve opportunities for reporting new occurrences.   See also project WA2014_33​.

No one has better knowledge, and opportunity to document, how coastal storms affect the coast than the people who live in coastal communities. By training the network of Local Environmental Observers (LEOs) to collect coastal storm data in Western Alaska, we improve local capacity to engage in coastal observations. Through this project, the LCC supported the development of the Climate Change & Health Impact Assessment report for the Bering Straits region.  The report can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.

To assess the vulnerability of a region to invasive plants, documentation of the presence or absence of invasive plants is necessary. This project expands on work initiated by the EPA to identify invasive plants in rural communities in the Bristol Bay region. Eighteen additional Bristol Bay communities were inventoried for invasive plants in 2012-2014.  This work provides a baseline for understanding the potential impact from these plants and the opportunity to treat the existing populations before they invade new areas. 

This project produced an existing vegetation type map at 30m resolution for the northern half of the Western Alaska LCC region, and Kodiak Archipelago.  The lack of a consistently mapped vegetation data layer for Alaska has been identified as a prima​​ry road block for many conservation and management entities across the state.  This project addresses a number of the LCC conservation goals by addressing a baseline science and provides a foundation for current and future projects within the region.  

​This project focuses on permafrost change and its effect on lake habitat change in major lake districts of the Western Alaska LCC. Land, resource, and wildlife managers, as well as local communities in Western Alaska, need spatially explicit information to determine past lake habitat changes, identify spatial patterns that could be correlated to climate, and project future habitat changes. Forecasting future changes will assist with developing habitat conservation plans and assessing the stability of freshwater resources for communities. ​