By: Helen Wiggins, ARCUS Interim Executive Director, Director of Programs

ARCUS

I'm proud to highlight several activities below that have been keeping us very busy over the past months (a few also mentioned in the Note from the ARCUS President)—none of which would be possible without our many collaborators, contributors, participants, and funders. We also love to highlight interesting efforts and research of the broader community, and Witness the Arctic, with a reach of nearly 9,000 subscribers, is a great place to do this! If you'd like your work featured in a future issue, please email Witness the Arctic's editor, Betsy Turner-Bogren, at betsy [at] arcus.org.

  • PolarTREC funded: We are thrilled to announce that NSF has awarded us a new three-year grant to support the highly successful PolarTREC program! Funded by NSF's Office of Polar Programs, PolarTREC provides opportunities for U.S. STEM educators to participate in cutting-edge field research with polar scientists in both Arctic and Antarctic locations. More information is available in this issue here.

  • Indigenous Scholars Program 2019: Four Indigenous Scholars have just returned from visits to Washington, D.C, where they discussed Arctic issues with a variety of policy- and decision-makers. An archive of a webinar from one of the scholars, Helen Aderman, on Bristol Bay Marine Ecosystem & Subsistence Resource needs, is available here. We also have an article in this issue of Witness from 2018 Arctic Indigenous Scholar, Rosemary Ahtuangaruak.

  • Meeting on "Culturally Responsive Outreach to Indigenous Alaska K-12 Students": As part of our The Arctic in the Classroom (TAC) project, ARCUS co-sponsored and participated in this meeting to review and adapt existing guidance about culturally responsive instructional strategies and/or to develop new guidance and resources.

  • Sea Ice Prediction Network- Phase 2 (SIPN2): The collaborative SIPN2 project has published a 2018 post-season Sea Ice Outlook report, held a webinar on ICESat-2, and launched the 2019 Sea Ice Outlook season with the first call for contributions.

  • Arctic Research/Seminar Series: In 2019 we've organized webinars about marine mammals, community science, and public knowledge of the Arctic. Archives of past webinars are available here. Subscribe to the ArcticInfo email list to receive notices of future webinars.

  • Anchorage Arctic Research Summit: ARCUS was a partner for the 2019 Anchorage Arctic Research Summit, which brought together members of the Anchorage-area Arctic research community to share information around the themes: Transforming Research & Scholarship: Arctic Economic Security & Environmental Security. More information about the event is available here.

  • Sea Ice for Walrus Outlook (SIWO): SIWO provides weekly reports from April through May/June with information on weather and sea ice conditions relevant to walrus in the northern Bering Sea and southern Chukchi Sea regions of Alaska. The 2019 season is now winding down with summer approaching and very little sea ice remaining.

Other ongoing communication activities include managing the ArcticInfo email list, Witness Community Highlights (Witness the Arctic's companion online publication), and the Arctic Calendar—your one-stop-shop for Arctic meetings and events.