Resources

Adopt-a-Stream Foundation:  Our mission is “To teach people to become stewards of their watersheds.” We achieve our mission through two focus areas: Environmental Education and Habitat Restoration.  The long term goal of AASF is to ensure the protection and care of every stream by encouraging schools, community groups, sports clubs, civic organizations and individuals to adopt their streams, and to become Streamkeepers.   “Adoption” of a stream means that volunteers will provide long-term care of the stream and establish stream monitoring, restoration, and community-wide environmental education activities. By supporting these efforts, The Adopt-A-Stream Foundation provides the building blocks for an improved environment and sustained healthy wild fish production.

Agricultural Research Service:  We are the U.S. Department of Agriculture's main in-house scientific research agency. Our job is finding solutions to agricultural problems that affect Americans every day, from field to table— protecting crops and livestock from pests and disease, improving the quality and safety of agricultural products, determining the best nutrition for people from infancy to old age, sustaining our soil and other natural resources, ensuring profitability for farmers and processors, keeping costs down for consumers, and providing research support to other federal agencies.

Alaska Association of Conservation Districts:  Districts work with landowners, land managers, local government agencies and other special interest groups in addressing a broad spectrum of resources concerns: erosion control, flood prevention, water conservation and use, wetlands, groundwater, water quality and quantity, nonpoint source pollution and community development.  District activities and interaction with private landowners is voluntary, not regulatory.  Districts work with government agencies to provide technical guidance and resource management assistance. 

Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation:  The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation objective is focused and consistent with the mission: "Alaskans working together to promote a clean, healthy environment through communication and education."

Alaska Department of Fish & Game:  The Alaska Department of Fish and Game's mission is to manage, protect, maintain, and improve the fish, game and aquatic plant resources of Alaska. The primary goals are to ensure that Alaska's renewable fish and wildlife resources and their habitats are conserved and managed on the sustained yield principle, and the use and development of these resources are in the best interest of the economy and well-being of the people of the state.

Alaska Department of Natural Resources:  The Department of Natural Resources' goal is to contribute to Alaska's economic health and quality of life by protecting and maintaining the state's resources, and encouraging wise development of these resources by making them available for public use.

Alaska Natural Resources Conservation Service:  The Natural Resources Conservation Service provides leadership in a partnership effort to help people conserve, maintain, and improve our natural resources and environment.

American Farm Bureau Federation:  Our mission is to implement policies that are developed by members and provide programs that will improve the financial well-being and quality of life for farmers and ranchers.

American Farmland Trust:  American Farmland Trust is a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1980 to protect our nation's farmland. AFT works to stop the loss of productive farmland and to promote farming practices that lead to a healthy environment.  AFT's plan operates on three closely coordinated fronts: AFT works with farmers and ranchers to save the best land; AFT helps communities and states plan their growth with agriculture in mind; and AFT advances farm practices that keep the land healthy.

Best Management Practices database:  This database provides access to BMP performance data in a standardized format for roughly 200 BMP studies conducted over the past fifteen years.

Butte Community Council (BCC), Inc.:  BCC is a Non-Profit Corporation, and 501C(3) Tax Exempt Organization.  The Council meets the second Wednesday of every month at 7:00 p.m. at the Butte Community Center.

**Cook Inlet Information Management and Monitoring System (CIMMS):  Alaska's Cooperatively Implemented Information Management System. CIIMMS is a web-based tool that helps users find and share information about Alaska's Natural Resources. Here you can discover, access, and contribute valuable information about Alaska and its natural resources.

Cook Inlet Keeper:  A private nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the vast Cook Inlet watershed and the life it sustains. Keeper’s programs unite individuals and groups through water quality monitoring, environmental education, and effective advocacy, to give citizens the tools they need to promote clean water in the 47,000 square mile Cook Inlet watershed. Keeper’s 19’ patrol skiff provides the organization with a unique platform to sample water quality, educate groups, and press for responsible stewardship. Since its inception in 1995, Keeper has become the leading advocate for watershed-based protections in the rich but threatened streams, lakes and estuaries of the Cook Inlet watershed.

Cooperative Extension Service (CES):  interprets and extends relevant research-based knowledge in an understandable and usable form; and encourages the application of this knowledge to solve the problems and meet the challenges that face the people of Alaska.  The CES is an outreach educational delivery system supported by a partnership between the United Sates Department of Agriculture and the University of Alaska Fairbanks and College of Rural Alaska.

Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service:  CSREES has research and education information about many subjects, and staff specialists who can answer your questions or refer you to someone at state or county level who possesses the information you need. Click on the subject matter area below that most closely describes what it is you are seeking information about. If a subject has more than one resource, you will be taken to a secondary screen where you may make a more precise selection.

Economic Research Service:  The Economic Research Service (ERS) is the main source of economic information and research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Located in Washington, DC, with approximately 450 employees, the mission of ERS is to inform and enhance public and private decision making on economic and policy issues related to agriculture, food, natural resources, and rural development. To accomplish this mission, highly trained economists and social scientists develop and distribute a broad range of economic and other social science information and analysis.

Environmental Protection Agency:  EPA's mission is to protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment — air, water, and land — upon which life depends. For 30 years, EPA has been working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people.

EPA's Watershed Academy:  Watershed approaches are changing the way federal, state, and local agencies manage water resources. Making sound management decisions based on an understanding of complex, interrelated natural systems requires working shoulder to shoulder across programs. We also recognize that solving environmental problems depends increasingly on local governments and local citizens. Environmental managers, who are frequently constrained by inadequate budgets or staff downsizing, must find ways to leverage resources to maintain environmental protection, restoration, and other management efforts.

Farm Service Agency:  Stabilizing farm income, helping farmers conserve land and water resources, providing credit to new or disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, and helping farm operations recover from the effects of disaster are the missions of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency (FSA).

Forest Service;  Established in 1905, the Forest Service is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Forest Service manages public lands in national forests and grasslands.  The mission of the Forest Service — "to provide the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people in the long run."  National forests and grasslands encompass 191 million acres (77.3 million hectares) of land, which is an area equivalent to the size of Texas.

Global Rivers Environment Education Network:  Earth Force is youth for a change! Through Earth Force, youth discover and implement lasting solutions to environmental issues in their community. In the process they develop life-long habits of active citizenship and environmental stewardship. Educators turn to Earth Force for innovative tools to engage young people in community problem solving.

The Groundwater Foundation:  is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and motivating people to care for and about groundwater.

Kenai Watershed Forum:  The Kenai Watershed Forum is a 501(c)(3) non-profit citizens' group whose mission is:  Citizens Working Together For Community Vitality In A Healthy Watershed.

Land Stewardship Project:  The mission of the Land Stewardship Project is to foster an ethic of stewardship for farmland, to promote sustainable agriculture and to develop sustainable communities.

Land Trust Alliance:  Founded in 1982, the Land Trust Alliance seeks to double the pace of land conservation in America. As the national leader of the private land conservation movement, LTA promotes voluntary land conservation across the country, provides resources, leadership, and training to the nation's 1,200-plus nonprofit, grassroots land trusts and helps them to protect important open spaces. The Land Trust Alliance urges each land trust to bring its operations into compliance with the Standards and Practices. When your land trust does so, pass a board resolution adopting the Standards and Practices as guiding operations of the organization, and let LTA know that your organization has adopted them. Young land trusts that do not yet meet the Standards and Practices can pass a resolution stating their intent to do so and specifying a date by which the land trust plans to achieve them. Sample language for such resolutions is provided at the end of the Standards Statement.

Matanuska-Susitna Borough:  The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly is comprised of seven members elected from districts for staggered three-year terms. The Assembly approves the budget, sets the mill rate for taxation, and appropriates funds to provide for Borough services. Through laws passed, the Assembly establishes policy statements which are then executed through the administration. The Borough includes mountain ranges and valleys; glaciers, rivers, and lakes; wetlands, tundra, and boreal forest; farms, towns, suburban homes, and isolated cabins; and vast stretches of pristine wilderness. Its boundaries enclose the drainages of its two principle rivers-- the Matanuska and the Susitna Rivers. The Borough includes portions of the Alaska Range with the tallest mountain in North America, Mount McKinley, just outside its northern borders; portions of the Chugach Mountains to the south; and virtually the entire Talkeetna and Clearwater Ranges in its interior.

Mat-Su School District: "Developing productive citizens for an ever-changing world:  We believe all students can learn, higher expectations yield higher results, the family and community are necessary for the total education of a student, Our schools will graduate productive participating citizens, successful students are the result of equal educational opportunities.   District goals are to prioritize resources to increase the progress of all students toward achieving state standards.  Support highly qualified workforce through a comprehensive staff development plan.  Provide facilities that are save and have broad use for education and the community.

National Agricultural Library:  The National Agricultural Library ensures and enhances access to agricultural information for a better quality of life.  The National Agricultural Library: 1) Serves as a National Library of the United States and as the Library of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 2) Acquires, organizes, manages, preserves, and provides access to information and provides quality stewardship of its unique collection. 3) Assists, trains, and educates people based on assessment of their information needs. 4) Provides leadership in information management. 5)Maximizes access to information through collaborative efforts and utilization of technology. 6) Enhances global cooperation through international exchange of information and the provision of services and technical assistance.

National Association of Conservation Districts:  NACD is the national voice of America's 3000 local conservation districts.  By working with landowners, organizations and government, districts have helped to protect our soil, water, forests, wildlife and other resources for over 60 years.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: To understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment and conserve and manage coastal and marine resources to meet our Nation’s economic, social, and environmental needs.

Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)- Alaska:  NRCS puts nearly 70 years of experience to work in assisting owners of America's private land with conserving their soil, water, and other natural resources.  Local, state and federal agencies and policymakers also rely on our expertise.  We deliver technical assistance based on sound science and suited to a customer's specific needs.  Cost shares and financial incentives are available in some cases.  Most work is done with local partners.  Our partnership with local conservation districts serves almost every county in the nation, and the Caribbean and Pacific Basin.  Participation in our programs are voluntary.   The NRCS provides leadership in a partnership effort to help people conserve, maintain, and improve our natural resources and envirnoment.

The River Network:  River Network's Mission is to help people understand, protect and restore rivers and their watersheds.  We envision a nation whose rivers are cared for by those who use them and live in their watershed. Our constituency is comprised of grassroots river and watershed conservation organizations, public agencies, tribal governments and coalitions, and other working to save freshwater ecosystems.

Soil and Water Conservation Society:  The Soil and Water Conservation Society fosters the science and the art of soil, water and related natural resource management to achieve sustainability. We promote and practice an ethic recognizing the interdependence of people and the environment.

State of Alaska:  It is the policy of the State to encourage the settlement of its land and the development of its resources by making them available for maximum use consistent with the public interest. The legislature shall provide for the utilization, development, and conservation of all natural resources belonging to the State, including land and waters, for the maximum benefit of its people.

Storm-water Stencils & Programs:  Storm drain stenciling is an educational, interactive tool to engage people of all ages in community involvement for watershed pollution prevention. It is an action project for students and community involvement for adults. EPA recommends stenciling under the new Phase II Storm-water Rule requirements for Public Education and Outreach, Public Participation/Involvement and Illicit discharge detection & elimination. Stenciling is especially valuable as ongoing citizen involvement and outreach since stencils need to be refreshed every few years.

University of Alaska Environment & Natural Resource Institute: AKNHP's mission is to document the distribution and abundance of ecologically significant plant and animal species, ecological communities, and natural features, and to assist in maintaining an ecologically healthy environment, while promoting the development of a sustainable economy in Alaska...."

U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA): USDA remains committed to helping America's farmers and ranchers. But we also do much more-- 1) USDA leads the Federal anti-hunger effort with the Food Stamp, School Lunch, School Breakfast, and the WIC Programs. 2) USDA is the steward of our nation's 192 million acres of national forests and rangelands.  3)  USDA is the country's largest conservation agency, encouraging voluntary efforts to protect soil, water, and wildlife on the 70 percent of America's lands that are in private hands. 4) USDA brings housing, modern telecommunications, and safe drinking water to rural America. 5)  USDA is responsible for the safety of meat, poultry, and egg products. 6)  USDA is a research leader in everything from human nutrition to new crop technologies that allow us to grow more food and fiber using less water and pesticides.  7) USDA helps ensure open markets for U.S. agricultural products and provides food aid to needy people overseas.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: is fundamentally a fish and wildlife oriented, biologically base organization, committed to the conservation of the natural resources placed in its trust. Is  part of a greater conservation community that includes other federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations, private citizens and responsible industries. The Service has distinct responsibilities within that community, but emphasizes that conservation is a collective job. Conducts business with an emphasis on partnerships and coalitions. We are flexible and opportunistic in working with our partners toward conservation goals. Sometimes we lead, sometimes we support, sometimes we act as a catalyst, and, as appropriate, sometimes we exercise our regulatory authority. Understands that resource science and management, and social, political and economic realities, can both shape our direction and ultimately contribute to our success in achieving our mission.

Water Quality Information Center:  The Water Quality Information Center at the National Agricultural Library (NAL) is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Research Service. The center was established in 1990 to support USDA's coordinated plan to address water quality concerns. As the focal point of NAL's water quality efforts, the center collects, organizes, and communicates the scientific findings, educational methodologies, and public policy issues related to water quality and agriculture. The center's activities involve three areas: communications, library resources, and special projects.