In the tiny Native village of Oscarville, Alaska, state and federal agencies are joining forces to tackle tough challenges that are endemic to rural Alaska: high energy costs, unemployment, the changing climate, deteriorating and inefficient housing, and lack of infrastructure, to name just a few.  For these isolated villages, the threats to their way of life—and indeed their very existence—are many. And Oscarville is dealing with them all.

As a microcosm of rural Alaska, the 50-resident village of Oscarville makes an ideal template for creating a sustainable community—one that might serve as a model for others to follow.

It’s an ambitious collaborative undertaking seemingly lifted straight out of the playbook of President Obama’s 2014 State, Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resiliency—a concerted effort to:

• Strengthen coordination and partnerships among federal agencies, and across federal, state, local, and tribal jurisdictions and economic sectors
• Consult and cooperate with Tribes and indigenous communities on all aspects of federal climate preparedness and resilience efforts, and encourage states and local communities to do the same
• Accelerate the development of models and disseminate best practices for community resilience.

In fact, the idea for selecting one community to serve as a testbed for sustainable northern communities was conceived at the Alaska Rural Energy Conference last September, even before the ink had dried on the Task Force’s recommendations to the President.  The initiative’s long-term goal is to develop a holistic approach to sustainable northern communities built on creative strategies for dealing with pressing challenges like water safety and energy security.  The short-term plan is to rally the troops and create a plan of action for Oscarville. 

Among the boots on the ground in Oscarville on June 17 were those of Givey Kochanowski, Alaska Program Manager for the DOE Office of Indian Energy. Read more about the effort under way in Oscarville in a feature article published by Anchorage-based Alaska Dispatch News.