Author: Mary Looney

Collaboratives & Utilities: New Options for Municipal Stormwater Management

March 30, 2020 Presented By Amanda Ryan, CLEAR MS4 Extension Options for funding stormwater management efforts in Connecticut are expanding. While our region has been slow to adopt stormwater utilities for raising funds for stormwater management efforts, that may be beginning to change with the state’s first-ever stormwater utility approved in the City of New […]

Emergency Changes to the Land Use Process in the COVID-19 Era

March 26, 2020 Presented By Sara C. Bronin, Thomas F. Gallivan Chair of Real Property Law, UConn Law School and Chair, Hartford Planning and Zoning Commission In the COVID-19 era, the law must balance the need to limit face-to-face interaction, the public interest in efficient municipal function, and the difficulties municipalities face in an era […]

UConn Environment Corps: Harnessing Student Power to Help Towns

March 25, 2020 Presented By Chet Arnold, CLEAR Director A UConn faculty partnership that reaches across departmental and college lines is engaged in an effort that seeks to enhance, expand and institutionalize a new model for community engagement at the University. The “Environment Corps” combines the familiar elements of classroom instruction, service learning and Extension […]

30 Years of Connecticut’s Changing Landscape

December 12th, 2019 Presented By Chet Arnold, CLEAR Director and Emily Wilson, CLEAR Geospatial Extension Educator. The Connecticut’s Changing Landscape project now encompasses 7 dates covering the 30-year period from 1985 to 2015. What’s been happening to our state’s landscape over that period? This webinar will cover the basics of the “CCL” project and discuss […]

Enlisting Youth to Tackle Conservation Projects

December 5th, 2019 Presented by Laura Cisneros, Ph.D., Nicole Freidenfelds and Amy Cabaniss, Ph.D., UConn Extension Faculty members, NRCA Have a great idea for a conservation project in your community or land trust, but not sure you have the staff power, technical know-how, or energy to carry it out? Wouldn’t it be great to engage […]

Getting to 2% – Case Studies in Impervious Cover Disconnection

November 14, 2019 Presented By Victor Benni, Town of East Lyme and Michael Dietz, UConn CLEAR We’ll highlight disconnection strategies from East Lyme and the UConn Storrs Campus. Vic Benni from East Lyme will share his method (and spreadsheet) for calculating total Directly Connected Impervious Area (DCIA) and describe some of the Low Impact Development […]

How will CT’s Coastal Roads and Marshes Respond to Sea Level Rise?

October 16, 2019 Presented By Emily Wilson, UConn CLEAR and David Kozak, CT DEEP Sea Level Affecting Marsh Migration (SLAMM) is a mathematical model developed by NOAA that uses digital elevation data and other information to simulate potential impacts of long-term sea level rise on wetlands and shorelines. CT DEEP recently completed a project to […]

Stormwater Utilities in Connecticut

October 1, 2019 Presented By Amanda Ryan, UConn CLEAR, David Dickson, UConn CLEAR, Joe Lanzafame, City of New London and Randy Collins, CT Conference of Municipalities (CCM) Stormwater utilities are used across the country as a way for municipalities to cover the costs of installing and maintaining their stormwater infrastructure. The concept has been slow […]

Oak Mortality in Eastern Connecticut

May 29, 2019 Presented By Douglas Emmerthal, Program Leader CT-DEEP Forestry Division and Todd Bobowick, Resource Conservationist NRCS State Forester USDA-NRCS Stress factors affecting oak trees in eastern CT including drought, defoliation due to gypsy moth caterpillars, and impacts of native opportunistic pathogens have caused the deaths of oak trees on tens of thousands of […]

CT DOT’s “MS4” General Permit

July 10, 2018 Presented by Adam Fox, P.E., Principal Engineer, Environmental Compliance, Contract Development & Permit Coordination Connecticut Department Of Transportation & Daniel Imig, P.E., Transportation Engineer 3, Environmental Compliance Section, Connecticut Department Of Transportation CTDEEP recently released an MS4 permit for the Department of Transportation (DOT). While largely similar to the municipal version, there […]

Opportunities For Brownfield Redevelopment in Connecticut

June 19, 2018 Presented By Dr. Maria Chrysochoou Director of the Connecticut Brownfields Initiative (CBI) at the University of Connecticut & Ms. Binu Chandy, Deputy Director of the Office of Brownfield Remediation and Development at the Ct Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) Brownfields are underutilized properties, most often located in urban cores, the […]

Climate Change & Environmental Security Beyond our Borders

May 15, 2018 Presented By Dr. Mark A. Boyer, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, Geography, UConn, Executive Director, International Studies Association Climate change is the signature issue of our time, yet the topic remains one of great controversy politically (if not scientifically). Mostly as a result of this political controversy, the global community has made […]

Landsat & Sentinel-2: Satellite Based Sensors for CT’s Landscape

April 24, 2018 Presented By James Hurd Research Associate, UConn, Dept. of NRE, Program Coordinator ConnecticutView and Chandi Witharana, Visiting Research Professor, UConn, Dept. of NRE, Director ConnecticutView There is no shortage of available imagery to view the landscape of Connecticut, or any place in the world for that matter. Imagery comes in all types […]

Digging into the 2017 Connecticut Trail Census Data

April 3, 2018 Presented By Kristina Kelly, Connecticut Trail Census Statewide Coordinator, Laura Brown, Community and Economic Development Educator with UConn Extension and Certified Economic Developer (CEcD), and Aaron Budris, Senior Regional Planner for the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments The Connecticut Trail Census is a statewide volunteer data collection program intended to inform a better […]

New Hampshire’s Green Snow Pro: Would it Work in CT?

March 20, 2018 Presented By Ted Diers from the NH Watershed Management Bureau & Mary McCarthy, Program Manager, Educational Outreach The State of New Hampshire has developed a novel way to provide for effective snow management and removal while also reducing impacts of chlorides on the environment. The Green Snow Pro program provides training and […]

Sustainable Connecticut – Local Actions, Statewide Impact

February 27, 2018 Presented By Lynn Stoddard and Jessica LeClair, Eastern Connecticut State University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy Join us to explore Sustainable CT, a new statewide, sustainability certification program for Connecticut’s cities and towns. Lynn Stoddard and Jessica LeClair of Eastern Connecticut State University’s Institute for Sustainable Energy will present an overview of the […]

Engaging & Mentoring the Next Generation of Conservation Leaders

January 30, 2018 Presented by Laura Cisneros & Abby Beissinger, NRCA, UConn Department of Natural Resources and Environment Conservation groups that depend on the efforts of volunteers often find themselves with a long to-do list to achieve their conservation goals. At the same time, these organizations often seek to include youth in their efforts, but may […]

CT MS4 Mapping Details, Clarifications, and Tools

October 24, 2017 Presented By Dave Dickson & Cary Chadwick, UConn CLEAR CT’s new MS4 permit includes several mapping related requirements. From mapping your stormwater system to determining where to focus your efforts, geospatial technologies will certainly be helpful in meeting your permit obligations. This webinar will (1) highlight the parts of the permit where […]