environment

Advancing Environmental & Climate Justice in CT

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Romina Flores Diaz, a political science student at UConn Hartford, and Mayra Rodríguez González, our urban and community forestry assistant extension educator, advanced UConn CAHNR’s strategic vision through their collaborative research on Resilient Cities, Racism, and Equity. At the Undergraduate Research Conference in Storrs, Romina presented an evidence-based approach to achieve environmental and climate justice in communities.

Achieving environmental and climate justice requires innovative strategies. What is the best approach?

  • Amplifying Community Voices
  • Promoting Inclusive Programming
  • Building Intergenerational Capacity
  • Centering Marginalized Identities
  • Promoting Equity In Management

Learn more about projects and efforts at s.uconn.edu/urban

Woman smiling with a research poster in the background
Romina Flores Diaz, Department of Political Science, University of Connecticut Hartford

UConn CAHNR is committed to improving quality of life and creating a sustainable future. Through scientific discovery, innovation, education, and community engagement the College has been working to achieve the set strategic initiatives: 

  • Ensuring a Vibrant and Sustainable Agricultural Industry and Food Supply
  • Enhancing Health and Well-Being Locally, Nationally, and Globally
  • Promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice
  • Advancing Adaptation and Resilience in a Changing Climate
  • Fostering Sustainable Landscapes at the Urban-Rural Interface

Read more at: https://cahnr.uconn.edu/strategic-vision/

Fall-Winter 2022-2023 Wrack Lines

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windmill on CTSG Wrack Lines issue over

The Fall-Winter 2022-2023 issue of Wrack Lines is filled with articles and images telling stories around the theme of “Looking Ahead: people and projects shaping the future.”

The magazine leads with the first in what will be a series of articles about offshore wind development impacting Connecticut, followed by the inspiring story of how a dying forest was replanted for climate resilience. Next, a profile of longtime marine educator Tim Visel tells about his lasting impact on Connecticut schools and students. Lastly, the complex challenge of dealing with Contaminants of Emerging Concern is examined, with descriptions of how Sea Grant is involved and the particularly troublesome group of substances called PFAS.

Access the the entire issue here.

 

Individual articles can be found below:

 

Editor’s column

Contents and Contributors

Winds of Change: Connecticut starts to see signs of offshore turbine development

sTo Len reflects of the journey that led him to the CT Sea Grant art project

Hoffman Evergreen Preserve: a forest for now and the future

Tim Visel worked to bring aquaculture to the forefront in CT education

Contaminants of Emerging Concern: a knotty challenge that needs unraveling

PFAS: ‘forever chemicals’ now pervasive in the environment

Back Cover

 

 

Original Publication by CT Sea Grant: https://seagrant.uconn.edu/?p=9850

 

Calling All Citizen Scientists: Mallard Duck Research

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mallard duck eggs in a nest

Have you found a Mallard duck nest this spring? Please support the research project of Dr. Tracy Rittenhouse in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment by letting us know. We have several students searching for nests all day, every day, but CT is full of people who are outside observing wildlife. We would greatly appreciate your help in finding nests.

More info here:

https://tracyrittenhouse.weebly.com/mallard-project.html

Direct link to reporting form:

https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/76b0075092fb4c1190326f36b1428fc0

Connecticut Master Woodland Manager Program

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Tom Worthely and other instructors in the woods

Make your mark on Connecticut’s woodlands, 

become a Master Woodland Manager!

CFPA is excited to introduce the Connecticut Master Woodland Manager (MWM) program beginning August 2021. This year-long program provides woodland owners and managers with the knowledge and skills that they need to make the right decisions for their woodland that can help enhance their lives and help wildlife and the environment.

The Master Woodland Manager program is right for you if you:

  • Own or interact with a woodland of any size
  • Value Connecticut’s woodlands and want to help steward them for future generations
  • Want to support wildlife and reduce the effects of climate change
  • Want to help your local economy and preserve the legacy of Connecticut’s woodlands

The MWM program provides a flexible, interactive experience that provides both virtual and field learning opportunities. Learn from Connecticut’s top forestry and wildlife professionals, and join a community of woodland supporters!

The Connecticut Master Woodland Manager program is brought to you by a grant from the United States Forest Service and the Connecticut Forest & Park Association through a partnership with the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection, UConn, Yale, Audubon Connecticut, and Connecticut Land Conservation Council.

Applications accepted until August 2021. For more information and to apply, visit the MWM registration page or email Beth at bbernard@ctwoodlands.org.

Connecting Connecticut: A New Podcast from UConn Extension

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Land-grant universities have provided communities, organizations, farmers and individuals with practical knowledge rooted in research through the Cooperative Extension System since the passage of the Smith-Lever Act in 1914. Over the last 107 years a lot has changed with our Extension systems. The program has expanded beyond its agricultural production origin to encompass a wide variety of resources ranging from nutrition to environmental issues and technology.

UConn Extension is no exception to this evolution that the Cooperative Extension System has seen. However, one thing has not changed, in more than a century of working with Connecticut residents, producers, and communities; UConn Extension has always been about connection. Across the board, UConn Extension educators and programs strike at the very core of our 169 cities and towns to make each one of them a better place. Connecting Connecticut, our new podcast, showcases each of our programs through the eyes of those impacted by them.

Connecting Connecticut teaches individuals throughout our state about the programs in their communities. By talking to extension educators, volunteers, researchers, and community members each episode dives into the goals and impacts our programs have here in Connecticut. From learning about coastal resilience and the Connecticut Sea Grant program, looking into the impact 4-H has on the state’s youth and communities, to discussing the importance of volunteers across the Constitution State it is our goal to share the work of UConn Extension, and ultimately our impact on Connecticut.

Join us as we hop from Salisbury to Stonington, visit all eight counties, and talk to all of the wonderful people in between that truly make this state great. Our goal to reach every community, people from all walks of life, and strive for a better tomorrow and we have been fulfilling that mission since 1914. We are chronicling that journey and the people who make it
possible everyday. It is only fitting that in telling our story we do so by Connecting Connecticut.

Article by Zachary J. Duda

Registration For The CCNR-COEAA Conference Is Now Open

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Beaver Brook State Park in Chaplin with dead treesThe Connecticut Conference on Natural Resources and Connecticut Outdoor & Environmental Education Association Joint Conference for 2021 will be Monday, March 15, 2021 from 9:00AM – 3:30PM.

This year’s theme is Creating a More Equitable & Inclusive Environmental Sector.

Click here to register.

Visit the conference website to learn more about conference highlights, including: 

  • Plenary Panel: BIPOC Young Environmental Professionals: Stories & Reflections to Guide Ways Forward 
  • Keynote: Parker McMullen Bushman: Making the Outdoors Welcoming Spaces for All People 
  • Conference platform facilitating 24 concurrent talks and an interactive poster & networking session (stay tuned for a call for presentation next week) 

 Interested in being a CCNR-COEEA Sponsor? Learn more here: https://ctcnr.weebly.com/host–sponsors.html 

Mitchell Elementary School Receives UConn 4-H Tower Garden

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people standing in a classroom with tower garden
Left to Right: Cremeans, Dominello, Hale, Davenport

A good side of the Coronavirus Pandemic, people want to eat and live locally. As we are becoming more and more aware of our neighboring farms, farmers, and small businesses a push to be local seems to have swept the nation. That is no different in Connecticut where Litchfield County UConn 4-H Extension Educator Bill Davenport is bringing that food and individual connection to the classroom.

At Mitchell Elementary School in Woodbury, Davenport helped bring UConn 4-H’s first ever tower garden to students to teach them the importance of agriculture and sustainably grown food. Alongside Tyler Cremeans (Aquaponics and Farm to Table teacher at Nonnewaug High School’s Agriscience Program), John Dominello (Culinary and Farm to Table Teacher at Nonnewaug High School), and Shelby Hale (Science Instructional Coach at Mitchell Elementary School) they plan to provide the students not only with the tower garden but also have high school students and 4-H club officers from the agriscience program mentor the younger learners.

To Davenport this is simply the very beginning of what can become a collaborative effort between 4-H clubs and members across the state and the elementary schools in their communities. With the goal to have two of these tower gardens up and growing within the coming weeks at Mitchell Elementary School and Bethlehem Elementary school this is the start of a much larger project to help UConn 4-H members collaborate with younger community members. Not only will there be collaboration amongst 4-H, but Davenport hopes to bring in individuals from the Northwest Conservation District and the Bethlehem Conservation
Commission turning this into a community based effort. The project has the potential to gain traction and result in tower gardens being provided to schools and students across Connecticut. Teaching elementary students about the environment, agriculture, and sustainability through a hands-on-learning approach helps foster a population that understands where their food comes
from, how it is grown, and how to do so sustainably.

 

Conservation Training Partnerships

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Connecting Generations for Conservation

students and adults in a Conservation Training Partnership program at UConnThe Cheshire Land Trust’s largest conservation property, Ives Farm, is a working 164-acre farm along the Quinnipiac River that includes picturesque public hiking trails through 80 acres of woodlands with mature stands of oak, mixed hardwoods, and old field cedars. In recent years, the trails became overgrown, impassable in spots and largely unused.

A Cheshire Land Trust volunteer sought to restore the trails and enlisted the help of a Lyman Hall High School student to get it done. Together they organized trail stewardship days to clear and clean the trails, used smartphones and a 360-degree camera to map them, and created an interactive website to educate the public about the trails and encourage their use. The property is now one of the land trust’s most popular for recreational use and education about the value of conservation.

This is just one of over 64 local conservation projects that have been undertaken throughout the state by intergenerational (adult plus teen) teams in the Conservation Training Partnerships (CTP) Program, a multi-departmental and multi-college effort at UConn that is funded by the National Science Foundation. Extension educators from the UConn Center for Land Use Education and Research’s (CLEAR) Geospatial Training Program collaborate with faculty from the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment (NRE) and the Neag School of Education to create a unique intergenerational learning experience with innovative technology and conservation science to enhance community engagement in environmental issues.

Through the CTP, enthusiastic teens and knowledgeable local conservation leaders team up to form intergenerational teams, attend a two day workshop to build their skills, and then apply these skills to address local environmental issues. Many of the tools that the teams learn to use in the course of the workshop are free and accessible smartphone applications that marry mapping and ecological field data collection, the operation of which are taught by Extension’s Cary Chadwick and Dave Dickson.

The teams then plan and implement a local conservation project, with the guidance and help of project faculty from NRE, Extension and Neag. Issues addressed include water quality, recreational access, invasive species identification and removal, and biodiversity.

Within these broad categories, local projects have spanned a wide range including stream sampling, green infrastructure, grazing management plans, interpretive nature trails, wildlife monitoring, and more.

The program is truly one with multiple benefits. Local organizations and leaders get help in completing long-delayed “someday” projects, both participants learn about smartphone mapping tools and other technologies, and youth become more engaged in conservation science and action. “It is so inspiring to see local conservation leaders share their passion for the environment with the next generation of leaders and to see teens share their enthusiasm and technological skills to solve local challenges,” says Geospatial Extension Educator Chadwick.

John Volin, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, NRE Professor and the Principal Investigator of the project, says, “It’s gratifying to think about all the local conservation projects we’ve jump-started throughout the state.”

Article by David Dickson

Headphone Etiquette on the Trail

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headphone etiquette rulesHeadphone etiquette on the trail:
With the world situation changing daily, more people have been finding their way
out to trails. Some it maybe their 1 st time riding or walking trails. There are still
some rules and etiquette that need to be followed.
Most of us enjoy listening to music, podcasts or audiobooks to add to our
experience. But we still need to be aware of our environment and the people we
share it with. One rule to remember is to keep the volume low so you hear bikers or
others on the trail. People move at different rates so it is important to move a side
(stay right) as needed so others can safely pass. This will reduce injuries to all
enjoying the outdoors.

To Learn More Please Visit

Trail Etiquette Lessons: Tips for Harmonious Hikes

Do You Listen to Music on Trails?

 

 

NRCA Program Receives Award

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nrca students in water

Congratulations to our Natural Resources Conservation Academy on their 2020 Excellence in Conservation Org Award from the Connecticut Land Conservation Council! The NRCA team comprises faculty members in Natural Resources & the Environment, UConn Center for Land Use Education and Research, Extension, UConn CAHNR, UConn Neag School of Education, and NRCS!