PETERS CREEK — The small tree in Josh Smith’s yard at the base of Bear Mountain looked like an alder, the familiar scrawny shrub of Alaska.

But the sturdy young tree with oval leaves was actually a hazelnut, a crop that Smith hopes could one day thrive in other gardens as the state’s climate changes, bringing new potential for new exotic species subarctic.

Alaska is getting warmer two to three times faster than the world average. The state’s growing season is three weeks longer than it was in 1970, leading to a significant and ever-changing shift in what can grow here. Peaches and plums in Nikiski, walnuts and cherries in Anchorage, asparagus in Fairbanks – a striking array of crops grown in a state traditionally best known for carrots and cabbage.

Today, Smith, a 32-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran who operates the Bear Mountain Forest Nursery, is working with researchers at the University of Alaska to find a variety of hazelnut that can withstand the extreme temperatures of the ‘State.

Hazelnuts, also called filberts, are the fruit of the hazel tree, which belongs to the birch family. Walnuts, Smith says, appeal to him as a potential new food crop, without the evolutionary traits of highly cultivated species. invasive species introduced into the state, such as European bird cherry.

He doesn’t expect Alaska to start overtaking Oregon, the nation’s top producer of hazelnuts, in the near future. Rather, he said, he hopes to bring more Alaskans into a conversation about food security and local horticulture amid the state’s changing temperatures.

“Climate change drives a lot of what I do,” Smith said. “Yes, we already cover barley and potatoes. Few fruits and nuts have been adapted to Alaskan conditions. We are trying to change that.

New normal

Anchoring reaches 90 degrees for the first time recorded in 2019. Statewide, average annual temperatures are 3 to 4 degrees higher than in the middle of the 20th century. Researchers say such changes lead to devastating effects such as rapid decline of Arctic sea ice and coastal erosion, thawing permafrost and increased forest fires.

They also forge a a new, albeit unpredictable, agricultural landscape.

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By the mid-2070s, the growing season in Fairbanks could extend almost to mid-October. It ended in late August in the 1980s, according to a Alaska Gardening Help Tool developed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reflected the state’s warmer conditions in an update last year of its plant hardiness zone map based on climate change, according to Nancy Fresco, associate research professor at the UAF International Arctic Research Center.

“Hardiness becomes really crucial and is often the limiting factor in Alaska,” Fresco said.

And the hazelnuts then? These trees are recommended for USDA hardiness zones 4 through 8, she said. Historically, areas around Anchorage were more like Zone 3 or barely 4, but new maps and UAF projections suggest the city and surrounding areas are well into Zone 4 or even 5.

“For any crop in Alaska, there will be a learning curve,” Fresco said. “It’s interesting and encouraging to know that people are putting in research, time and effort just to understand this for new crops.”

Surprises from the North

Researchers have been creating Alaska-hardy plants for more than a century: the Sitka hybrid strawberry plant was developed in 1907 by Charles Georgeson, who established the Alaska Agricultural Experiment Stations.

But longer seasons and innovation have made a new range of fruits and vegetables possible in recent decades, producers say.

A visitor to the Alaska State Fair earlier this year might have inadvertently spotted some examples of crop changes over the past few decades while ogling giant pumpkins and cabbages. Onions, corn and all kinds of hot peppers were among the fair competition specimens that stood out to Crop Superintendent Kathy Liska as she judged the entries in late August.

“The biggest thing I see here is the tomatoes,” Liska said. “They migrate from the greenhouse to the outside.”

Doug Tryck, a Rabbit Creek grower who worked with Smith and grew hazelnuts himself, grows historically unusual crops like sweet cherries but also Manchurian walnuts, a crop unthinkable in the state until recent years .

“They’re starting to produce nuts,” Tryck said. “They’re not as big as the others, but they’re definitely good to eat.”

Some growers are also taking advantage of technologies like high tunnels to grow varieties that might not have survived a few decades ago.

Mike O’Brien, owner of O’Brien Garden & Trees in Nikiski, has been growing since the 1970s. That’s when he began grafting, using rootstocks strong enough to operate in Alaska. He then added what became 11 high-tunnel greenhouses to provide wind shelter and heat.

When asked what he’s growing this season, O’Brien rattles off a list like he’s in a scene from “Forrest Gump” about fruits instead of shrimp: apricots, sweet cherries, tart cherries, peaches, plumcots, peaches, nectarines, plums, pears, many kinds of apples and “ALL berries”.

Was it possible to grow peaches, plums and pears in Alaska 20 years ago thanks to the high tunnels that make harvesting possible?

“Twenty years ago, maybe,” O’Brien said. “If we went back, say, 40 or 50 years, I would say no. »

The old rules no longer apply

Smith works full-time as a federal employee with the Department of Defense maintaining fuel systems at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. He said he got his start with plants as a YouTube geek with “a niche ADHD obsession.”

Growing up in a military family, he moved frequently but spent a lot of time in the Northwest with his grandparents, who were “plant people.” Then, after his family moved to the North Pole, Smith became involved with the Future Farmers of America in high school.

As he became hooked on plants and greenhouse growing, Smith said, he was also aware of climate change and its effects on growers.

“No one is going to fix this for us,” he remembers thinking at the time. “All the rules you follow no longer apply and certainly won’t apply in 20 years.”

In addition to experimenting with various crops, from pears to hickories, Smith also focuses on plants grown from local seeds such as wild blueberries, salmonella, cloudberries, devil’s club and other subsistence mainstays.

He sold plants – including hazelnut plants – at several events this year.

Hazelnuts appealed to Smith as part of his larger mission to adapt the plants to Alaska. Its oldest tree is 8 years old. He planted this one and was surprised to see it survive the winter. Then more recently he learned that Tryck had ripe hazelnuts and came to visit him.

“I have pictures of ripe hazelnuts in my hand and I have literally grown plants from them,” he said.

The small, round nuts are much more than just a flavoring in coffee syrup or an ingredient in Nutella, the sweet chocolate spread. Research and breeding consortium involving the Arbor Day Foundation, Oregon State University, Rutgers University and the Nebraska Forest Service/University of Nebraska-Lincoln, believes they “show great promise for increasing sustainable food supply food, feed and energy in the world.

As the first snows of winter blanketed his nursery in late October, Smith welcomed the arrival of two new “hardy breeding lines” of hazelnuts that he had ordered from Canada: a strain from northern Saskatchewan, hybrids between American and European hazelnuts; and Siberian hazelnut hybrids from Quebec.

He planted about 150 hazelnut plants at the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Matanuska Experimental Farm in Palmer last year to see how they performed.

Most survived the spring, but many didn’t make it until September, due to some experimentation with fertilizer, Smith said. Next spring, he plans to replace injured plants with robust seedlings that have overwintered on his property, as well as new shoots of Canadian seeds.

Then he will see what happens next,

“I’m not going to promise that this will be the next big business industry in Alaska. This is also part of PR…wow, we plant hazelnuts in Alaska. It’s bold,” Smith said. “We want people to open their eyes to the new reality and bring them to this conversation. »