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 the results, including findings on overall land cover change, riparian area change, forest fragmentation, land cover change over ag lands, and watershed impervious cover. We’ll also give a demo and tour of the newly revamped CCL web page, which features interactive mapping and graphics.
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 local youth in that effort? Tune in to this webinar to learn how UConn’s Natural Resources Conservation Academy (NRCA) is engaging youth in impressive land management, water quality, environmental assessment, recreation, and other environmental projects in communities throughout Connecticut. NRCA Faculty will share insights into ways of capacity-building through youth engagement. Through this webinar, you will learn about:
- tangible projects that can help to meet local environmental needs
- technologies and resources helpful in achieving on-the-ground community project success
- strategies to support youth-adult conservation projects
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 (LID) installations they have used to get to the 2% disconnection goal. Then, Mike Dietz will cover how he tracks impervious cover at UConn and highlight some of the LID practices treating stormwater runoff in Storrs.
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 run the SLAMM model for the Connecticut coastline, to better understand how Connecticut’s 21 largest coastal marshes and coastal area roads may respond to sea level rise (SLR). The model results have been turned into a new viewer on CT ECO.
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 to catch on in Connecticut – the state’s one and only utility was established in the City of New London just last year. Joe Lanzafame from New London will share how their utility came to be, how it’s administered, and how it’s going so far. We’ll also hear an update from Randy Collins from the CT Conference of Municipalities (CCM) on the status of legislation to provide all CT municipalities with clear authority to establish their own stormwater utility.
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 tasks due this year and provide an update on new tools and events to help towns with MS4 compliance.
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 woodland acres in eastern Connecticut. In some places canopy loss is severe and in many the potential success of desirable regrowth is questionable. This webinar will explain the causes of the issue, describe the degree and extent of the problem and present several potential management scenarios. Information about opportunities for technical and possible financial assistance.