UConn’s Conservation Training Partnerships (CTP) program just graduated its third year of Conservation Ambassadors, though admittedly, not exactly the way we had originally planned. CTP begins with a two-day workshop where teen & adult teams learn how to apply innovative, user-friendly mapping and web technology to address local conservation issues through hands-on fieldwork. After the […]
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 […]
CLEAR Bunch #SocialDistancing
Today we held our regular Tuesday CLEAR staff meeting. For the first time in a while the meeting wasn’t cancelled due to looming deadlines, stress, panic, conflicting meetings or anything else. Even in these social distancing times, everyone “made” it despite being all over the state, juggling households with small children, “distance learning” efforts, dogs […]
CT Trail Census: New Data Viz
The Connecticut Trail Census just launched a new data visualization, analyzing use on many of the state’s most popular multi-use trails. In 2019, the most heavily used trails were the Naugatuck River Greenway in Derby, Riverfront Recapture Trail in Hartford, and the Hop River Trail in Vernon. Hop River Trail data also indicated that a […]
NEW CT 3D Lidar Viewer on CT ECO
The new Connecticut 3D Lidar Viewer marks the first time that 3D elevation points from remotely-sensed Lidar are available in an interactive format over the web. Lidar is a remote sensing technique to map elevation using a laser sensor on an airplane. The result is millions and millions of points that each have a measured […]
Environmental Conservation on Display
What do salamanders, bats, compost and microplastics have in common? They’re some of the many conservation topics that teens and adults enrolled in the UConn Natural Resources Conservation Academy (http://nrca.uconn.edu/) have investigated this past year. Participants in the NRCA Conservation Ambassador Program and Conservation Training Partnerships will share their community project posters, story maps and […]
New option for taking nitrogen samples
There wasn’t a cheap and simple way to take field measurements of Total Nitrogen (TN). Samples had to be sent to a lab – until now! To help reduce water quality testing costs, CT DEEP agreed to allow MS4 communities to use less expensive field tests for nitrate and ammonia to estimate Total Nitrogen. If […]
Journey of A Climate Corps Student
By Sarah Schechter Major Choices I entered UConn as a Natural Resources Major, knowing I wanted to focus on the environment, but unsure of the exact path I wanted to follow. When choosing classes during my orientation session in Summer 2017, it was recommended that I take ANTH 1010: Global Climate Change and Human Societies, […]
CLEARscapes – Winter 2020 Edition
In this Issue The Environment Corps CLEAR Adds New Affiliated Faculty Connecticut’s Changing Landscape Two New CT ECO Map Viewers New Tools and Support for MS4 Program Updates (View Newsletter as pdf)
CLEAR In the Press – 2019
Hartford Courant – 11/03/19 From ‘rain bombs’ to ‘sunny-day flooding,’ climate change has become local The Chronicle – 08/06/19 UConn Gets Grant for Environmental Program
Is your water safe to drink?
If you are like most people, as long as water comes out of the tap, you don’t give it much thought. If your water is supplied by a water company, stringent testing is required by law, and you will periodically receive results of the testing. If you are one of the 40% of Connecticut residents […]
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 […]
No coal-tar pavement sealants in Connecticut (for the most part)
You know what they are – the tried and true sources of stormwater pollution like dog poop, lawns with fertilizer, pesticide or herbicide applications, poorly maintained septic and sewer systems, or improperly maintained construction sites to name a few. Once in a while something new gets added to the list, here in Connecticut in recent […]
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 […]
Preparing for Marsh Migration
With a CLEAR webinar on SLAMM (Sea level affecting marsh migration) this week by Emily Wilson (UConn CLEAR) and David Kozak (CT DEEP), it is timely to provide an update on the marsh migration buffer we’ve been developing in Stonington Borough. A small parcel of land was donated to Avalonia Land Conservancy (ALC) and added […]
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 […]
The Start of Something Big: UConn Environment Corps
A UConn partnership led by CLEAR has received a $2.25 million grant from the National Science Foundation to expand and study a new public engagement program that combines teaching, service learning, and Extension outreach. The program is called the Environment Corps and focuses on using STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) skills to address important […]