Just in case someone finds this thread who lives in Alaska and needs the information:
John Daley said, "Its an interesting topic, and I wonder if there was a good reason the first Nation people in the area did not farm animals." I think that there was a very good reason why none of the aboriginal Americans had much in the way of domestic animals (North American tribes pretty much all had dogs; in South America you can add guinea pigs, llamas and alpacas, and, I believe, some chickens and muscovies). They came to North America from eastern Russia by small boat, probably loaded down with people and supplies with no room for larger animals. Even if they crossed at the point where the two locations are closest together, it's still fifty miles or so of rough, cold water with frequent high winds and severe storms. The very earliest people groups may have been able to walk, possibly on ice or on a land bridge, but that's still a rough crossing from a very rough climate into another very rough climate. If they brought animals with them - and the animals survived the crossing (traversing the Aleutian islands region, even dry-shod, is a minimum 1,100 mile trip - just the islands, from the farthest west to the beginning of the Alaska Peninsula, which is extremely rugged and still a long distance from the mainland. Also extremely volcanic. That's not counting the distance between the west end of the islands to the Russian mainland), it's extremely likely that they ate the animals along the way just to keep themselves alive.
Scott Weinberg commented: "1) Absolutely nothing against hard work, but unless your time is worth almost nothing (read-can't produce income in any other way) then you have to consider just what it will take in time, to clear this land for hay production? Again, has it been done before by neighbors?"
I grew up on a homestead near Delta Junction, well north of where the OP lives (or lived, at the time he started this thread). We were about 100 miles south of Fairbanks, an area which gets much colder, and also gets a lot less precipitation, than South-central Alaska - the Anchorage/Palmer/Wasilla region. Land in our area was cleared by bulldozer, pushing the (small) trees up into windrows between the fields. This was done with as little disturbance of the soil as possible, rather like mowing tall grass, though they had to get the tree roots out, too (but they weren't scraping off the topsoil, such as it is). Then, when the weather allowed - deep snow, usually - the windrows would be burned. Dad had a bulldozer, and was a heavy-equipment operator and mechanic, but for a few acres, you could hire someone to do it. In South-central, the trees are a little bigger, and burning large amounts of downed trees would probably be frowned on, but slow and steady work with a chainsaw would get the job done eventually (Dad and Grandpa had 320 acres to clear between them, and economic necessity made it important to get land cleared quickly). Logs big enough to use for lumber or house logs should be set aside; smaller cut up for firewood, and then the branches burned when there is deep snow on the ground. Alaska is far too prone to wildfires to burn when there is no snow on the ground.
My father said you can grow almost anything in Alaska - if you put down some fertilizer. The soil doesn't have the good micro-organisms that you find in warmer climates, so it can be rather sterile. Getting the trees off will allow the ground to warm up more in the summer, which is a good thing in that climate. But in winter, the ground won't have the protection of the trees, either.
Fencing will be an issue. The perimeter fence needs to be solid and stout to keep sheep and LGD's in, and wolves out. VERY solid and stout, and tall, to keep moose out. Hot wire will help in the summer, but it may not be very hot in the winter - frozen ground doesn't ground out the fence properly. I would strongly suggest bringing the sheep into a closed barn at night, year-round, and keep them in all winter as long as the snow is too deep for them to paw through it. (Sheep used to be raised on some of the Aleutian islands, and are still raised on islands around Great Britain, living outdoors year-round. But those islands don't have any large predators, just foxes and hawks and eagles.) The barn will need to be ventilated, but should not have any place for bears or wolves to get inside. You'll need probably 3/4 ton of hay per sheep, assuming they'll be on pasture several months of the year. And you'll need some straw for bedding (wood shavings are not good bedding for wool sheep).
A really good resource for any kind of agriculture in Alaska is the Extension office. They have done all kinds of research for decades, figuring out what will and won't work in every part of Alaska.
