May 4, 2020 Presented By Cary Chadwick and Dave Dickson, UConn Department of Extension, CLEAR During the COVID-19 crisis, trail usage has skyrocketed. However, that usage has been concentrated on the best known trails, creating a challenge for social distancing. There are several smartphone apps that can help connect people with lesser known trails that can […]
Webinar
Did You See That Bobcat Out Your Window!?
April 29, 2020 Presented By Dr. Tracy Rittenhouse, Dept. of Natural Resources and the Environment, UConn View Video
What’s Driving Climate Adaptation in Connecticut (And Why)?
April 27, 2020 Presented By Mark A. Boyer, Dept. of Geography Department, UConn; Executive Director, International Studies Association (ISA; www.isanet.org) When confronted with the demands of global climate change, why do some towns move the climate adaptation agenda forward in their communities while others seemingly get little accomplished? To answer this question, we look at […]
Path to brownfield redevelopment: CBI’s Municipal Assistance Program
April 22, 2020 Presented By Dr. Nefeli Bompoti, Project Manager, Connecticut Brownfields Initiative The Connecticut Brownfields Initiative (CBI) is an educational and community support program with a mission to promote brownfield redevelopment in the State of Connecticut. CBI operates within the University of Connecticut and provides training and support for CT stakeholders on brownfield remediation […]
Learning from Cottontails: Successes and Challenges of the Young Forest Initiative
April 20, 2020 Presented By Lisa Wahle, Wildlife Management Institute, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Young forest and shrubland, and the wildlife species that depend on these areas have been in decline for many years due to anthropogenic development on natural lands and the normal maturation of forests. The designation of the New England […]
Communicating Trail Data through the Connecticut Trail Census
April 15, 2020 Presented By Laura Brown, Department of Extension, UConn The Connecticut Trail Census is an innovative statewide volunteer-based data collection and education program that encourages data informed decision-making and promotes active citizen participation in multi-use trail monitoring and advocacy. The Trail Census includes trail use counts recorded by infrared pedestrian counters, trail user […]
Connecticut’s Blue Heritage Trail
April 13, 2020 Presented By Syma Ebbin, Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Connecticut Sea Grant, UConn and Colleen Franks, Dept. of Marine Sciences, UConn The Blue Heritage Trail (BHT) project, supported by the University of Connecticut Office of Public Engagement, National Park Service and Connecticut Sea Grant seeks to raise public awareness of the […]
Statewide Lidar Elevation Points in Interactive, Color 3D!!
April 8, 2020 Presented By Emily Wilson, CLEAR Geospatial Extension Educator Lidar is a remote sensing technique to map elevation using a laser sensor on an airplane. The result is millions of points (or more) which are often used as input to other datasets such as digital elevation models (DEMs) which show the surface of […]
From Maps to Apps: Accessible Tech for field scientists and citizen scientists alike
April 6, 2020 Presented By Cary Chadwick, CLEAR Geospatial Extension Educator Advancements in data collection technology has made it easy to leverage sensors in smartphones and tablets including cameras, GPS, accelerometers, gyroscopes and more. This opens doors for casual mappers and citizen scientists to collect useful data with just the tool in their pocket. This […]
Moving with the Marshes
April 1, 2020 Presented By Juliana Barrett, Coastal Resources Extension Educator, CT Sea Grant Avalonia Land Conservancy (ALC) received a land parcel donation to add to their waterfront Dodge Paddock Beal Preserve in Stonington Borough, CT in 2018. The parcel included a large, cultivated garden bordering a marsh. With funding from the Long Island Sound […]
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 […]
MS4 Permit Year 3 tasks
June 24, 2019 Presented By Dave Dickson & Amanda Ryan, UConn CLEAR The third year of the updated MS4 permit is about to begin and that means there are a few more tasks that towns will need to start tackling. This webinar will breeze through the permit tasks that recur each year, cover the new […]
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 […]