Alaska’s Tidelines Institute has recruited the Juneau Carbon Offset Fund to provide carbon-reducing services and an educational opportunity for two of its 2021 summer course offerings.
Tidelines Institute is dedicated to education, research, and community. In its field-based courses, students undertake wilderness exploration, subsistence living, and a rigorous scientific curriculum and research, honing tangible scientific skills, field savvy, and a connection to the natural world. At the same time, Tidelines provides basic scientific laboratory facilities, hosting visiting researchers doing scientific work in the region – to help establish key baselines and inform management decisions about local natural resources. Finally, the Institute protects and maintains their beloved homestead as a public space for use by local communities.
Tidelines Institute makes its home at two campuses, located 25 miles apart along Icy Strait. The Good River Campus lies on the western outskirts of of Gustavus, AK, 50 miles northwest of Juneau and opening onto world-famous Glacier Bay National Park. The Inian Islands Campus is based on a 5-acre historic homestead on the Inian Islands, surrounded by designated wilderness within the Tongass National Forest. Moving between these incredible places, students have the opportunity to experience the richness of Southeast Alaska’s natural and human communities.
This summer, two week-long Tidelines Institute courses will discuss carbon offsetting and have reached out to JCOF for assistance. A collaborative effort between the University of Fairbanks and Tidelines Institute will bring students from UAF’s Climate Scholars Program to the Institute. JCOF has prepared a carbon footprint analysis of the students’ travel from Fairbanks to the Institute as an illustrative tool that breaks down the carbon outputs of the round trip travel. A 2nd summer course will see students from the San Francisco Bay Area’s Neuva School travel to the Institute. A similar carbon footprint analysis was performed for these students and will be used as a tool to discuss the carbon emissions inherent in travel – by jet, small plane, or boat.
JCOF welcomes the opportunity to work with Tidelines Institute and looks forward to additional collaborative efforts!