Achievement

At least a dozen current and graduated IGERT trainees have conducted research that integrates indigenous knowledge and western science, making the UAF IGERT an internationally recognized center for research on this topic. The following statements illustrate some of the achievements of IGERT trainees in this area. Indigenous hunters have identified climate-induced changes in moose behavior that increasingly bring local hunters in conflict with state hunting policies (McNeeley). Deer hunters and wildlife managers have identified strategies of post-logging forest management that could sustain hunting opportunities that would otherwise be foreclosed by forest succession (Brinkman). Observations of caribou by indigenous hunters identify caribou with traits related reindeer that interbred with wild herds 70 years previously; in other respects caribou from different herds in northern Alaska appear to be remarkably homogeneous genetically (Mager).