Research

New CLEAR Progress Report Not as Boring as it Sounds!

Every 5.5 years or so (we have only two data points, so this may or may not be a trend) CLEAR issues a Progress Report in an attempt to characterize our rather unconventional blend of research, training, tool development, and outreach. Our second such report is now out, and to be frank—not to mention immodest […]

The Salt of the Earth

Although signs of spring are appearing around us (crocuses are up at my house!), the remnants of winter linger. Piles of dirty snow snow still litter the landscape, refusing to yield to the lengthening days. Very soon our thoughts and activities will turn to all things spring; snowplows and road salt will be distant memories. […]

NEW! Land Cover for the Long Island Sound Watershed

You may have heard of the Connecticut’s Changing Landscape project and website that provides basic land cover information through five directly comparable land cover datasets, from 1985, 1990, 1995, 2002 and 2006, allowing us to look at, and quantify, landscape change in Connecticut.  Now, thanks to the support of the Long Island Sound Study, we […]

NEMO Monitoring Project Looks at Nitrogen Processing by Bioretention

Last week CLEAR’s NEMO Program broke ground on a new monitoring project focused on the Low Impact Development (LID) practice of bioretention.  Bioretention is the practice of reducing the quantity, and increasing the quality, of runoff by directing it to a depression filled with plants.  This is the same concept as the more widely recognized rain garden, […]

NEMO’s Rain Garden Demonstration Site

The NEMO team has just completed its second rain garden demonstration site at the Middlesex County Extension Center in Haddam (CLEAR and NEMO’s home-base). Rain gardens are shallow depressions in the landscape that typically include plants and a mulch layer or ground cover. Their purpose is to help retain water runoff during a storm event, allowing […]