Ethnobotany studies to blossom at Nunivak

DUSTIN SOLBERG

April 18, 2008 at 10:31AM AKST

A new summer college offering in ethnobotany begins this summer in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

The summer field course at Nash Harbor on Nunivak Island is part of a new ethnobotany initiative at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel.

UAF botanist Rose Meier, who’s leading the program’s development, said teaching science through the discipline of ethnobotany is an approach approved by a board of advisors from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

"The Bethel campus said we would like something in ethnobotany because that’s something that’s very important to our communities," she said.

As an interdisciplinary field, ethnobotany draws on botany and anthropology.

The summer course is taught by two instructors, including a grad student and the recently hired Kevin Jernigan, a Ph.D. ethnobotantist who recently completed studies at the University of Georgia and has conducted research in the tropics of South America.

Local elders are also expected to assist.

The July 7-25 field course is not the first offering of the fledgling program. Last fall, a distance-delivered seminar class attracted 19 students.

Another 200-level course, ethical wildcrafting, is offered at the Kuskokwim Campus.

The summer ethnobotany course is designed for 12 students, and tuition and transportation for those selected among the applicants for the course will be paid with a federal grant.

"We have monies right now to jump start this program, so it’s a sweet deal for the students," she said.

The members of the eight-person advisory council are Ann Garibaldi, ethnobotanist working with Fort McKay Gwich’in; Craig Gerlach, UAF anthropologist working on Alaska food systems; Pat Holloway, director, Georgeson Botanical Gardens; Steffi Ickert-Bond, herbarium curator, UA Museum; Mary Pete, Kuskokwim Campus director; Betty Rogers, St. Paul Island science teacher; Gloria Simeon, Bethel entrepreneur; and Charles Walsh, Alaska Herb Tea Co.

The school’s ethnobotany program is part of a developing four-campus program that intends to get rural Alaska students enrolled in science courses.

The UAF campus in Nome is developing a high-latitude range management program. At the Interior/Aleutians and Chukchi campus, a veterinary science certificate is offered.

The ethnobotany program, along with the environmental science program at the Bristol Bay Campus in Dillingham, is still under development. All four UAF offerings are funded with a U.S. Department of Agriculture education grant.

For more information, contact Meier at fnram2@uaf.edu or (888) 474-5207 or the Kuskokwim Campus at 543-4500.