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Land Use Academy Position Now Open!

The UConn Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) is searching for a new team member to lead our Land Use Academy and participate in our Adapt CT and Climate Corps programs. We are looking for someone with planning experience and a desire to contribute to a dynamic, fun, creative team focused on helping […]

The Climate Change Denier Awards

With the spotlight on the COVID-19 virus and the social and economic devastation it is causing, it’s easy to overlook the many other challenges that are still ahead. One such challenge is our response to climate change. In the interest of diverting attention from the present troubles, the Climate Deniers Awards have been created. While […]

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 […]

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, […]

Apply Now for NRCA Summer Programs!

Registration is now open for the Natural Resources Conservation Academy’s 2019 summer programs. The Natural Resources Conservation Academy (NRCA) is an innovative program in environmental conservation that engages Connecticut high school students, adult conservation volunteers and teachers in conservation efforts at the community level. NRCA’s three interconnected programs (below) benefit participants through education on natural resource […]

Projections Matter, Especially on Election Night

The first thing I teach someone about maps is that they are more than just lines and direction on a page, screen, or device. Maps convey information. Maps tell a story. But maps can also be deceiving. Consider for a minute, election maps. If you’re reading this blog post then you survived, if just barely, […]

Using GIS to Find Birdwatching Hotspots

Do you know why May is a New Englander’s favorite month for birdwatching? It is because it’s the peak of spring migration! Neotropical birds are passing through the area on the way to their breeding grounds, or are staying the summer. Plus they are sporting their best and brightest plumage to attract a mate, which […]

Another win for rain gardens

It’s well known that rain gardens are great for infiltrating stormwater but people may not realize that they also help destroy common stormwater pollutants. Several studies have found that rather than accumulating pollutants in their soils, rain gardens tend to biodegrade them instead.  One study (LeFevre et al., 2011) investigated petroleum hydrocarbon levels in 58 […]

clear.uconn.edu, Now Mobile-friendly!

The CLEAR website recently had an overhaul, and is now mobile-friendly. While this may seem pretty standard for 2018, it was a big lift for our rather hefty website! The site has hundreds of pages of information, hosts multiple project websites, and is bursting at the seams with tools, interactive maps, webinars, blogs, videos and […]

How Healthy Are the Coastal Habitats of Long Island Sound?

This blog is a reposting of a blog published by Georgia Basso and Samantha Brooke, USFWS Coastal habitat are critical to both environmental and human well-being. The importance of the Long Island Sound is reflected in its Congressional designation as an “Estuary of National Significance” in 1987. Photo credit: J. Murray   When intense storms hammer […]