Alberto Pantoja, the local research leader for U.S. Agricultural Research Services, said the complex will allow scientists to expand their work beyond projects suitable for Interior Alaska’s brief summer.
“We’ll be able to extend our growing season,” he said.
A pair of 50-by-25-foot greenhouses on the site will be connected by a 64-by-64-foot headhouse. A headhouse is a work area with space for offices, storage and seed-starting facilities.
The project is being funded by a grant through Agricultural Research Services, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Pantoja said the facility will house the work of six researchers, several technicians and University of Alaska student workers.
Pantoja said some of the likely projects include the study of potato viruses and a look at insect-plant interactions during winter months. He said the facility also will allow researchers to study invasive plants that would be prone to spread if they were planted outdoors.
The greenhouse complex will be located next to the National Park Service administrative building on Geist Road. Headhouse construction is expected to be done by late August, with the greenhouses completed either this fall or next spring, Pantoja said.
Contact staff writer Jeff Richardson at 459-7518.
I drove past the site this morning. A bustle of construction going on. Sixty foot tall trees to the south. Frontage on the south side of Geist road. Good view to the north. Park Service office building to the west.
Not the best location for solar exposure. Perhaps they will grow mushrooms or have a hefty energy bill. All the lights and heat they will need will either promote global warming with CO2 emissions or keep the windmills in Healy busy.
Also will local residents get to use it at all in the winter? A public area to visit and enjoy perhaps?
I wasn't planning on paying it back....I'd be dead by then....therefor not my problem! :)
You gotta admit that the Obama, Pelosi, and Reid combo really know how to do one thing, SPEND.