Join Rockfall on 3/22 for our Annual Symposium

Coming up next week on March 22nd, The Rockfall Foundation and the UConn Climate Adaptation Academy host a symposium on:

Site Development Considerations for Changing Weather Patterns

Case Studies: What Works, What to Watch Out For, and How to Encourage Success

Join us for a discussion on progress in eco-friendly commercial development and an exploration of completed projects including a LID residential development, a pervious pavement parking lot, and a municipal stormwater upgrade. We'll discuss both the long- and short-term challenges and successes of development and investigate several case studies. 

The Jordan Cove Subdivision in Waterford is now 15 years old with multiple homeowners and expiring deed restrictions; we’ll examine how this worked and apply that information going forward.
We’ll also learn about what’s been done on the UConn campus in Storrs (pervious parking lot and more) including lessons learned and whether maintenance is an issue or not; and we’ll have a return visit from Giovanni Zinn in New Haven to get a progress report on the green infrastructure he discussed at the 2016 Symposium, including how it has fared in both drought and flood conditions. Finally, we’ll hear about successful sites nationwide and how our regulations and mindsets may need to be adjusted in order to foster site development that works with our changing weather patterns.

Who should attend: Local elected and appointed officials; planners and zoning enforcement officials; architects; developers; engineers; landscape architects; educators; students; Planning, Zoning, Wetlands and ZBA board and commission members; and all concerned with our changing weather patterns and how best to design for them.

Symposium Program: 

8:00 – 8:30          Registration and Continental Breakfast
8:30 – 8:40          Welcome – Tony Marino, Executive Director, The Rockfall Foundation
8:40 – 9:10          Introduction – David Dickson, Co-Director CT NEMO
9:10 – 9:50          Residential Subdivision: Jordan Cove, Waterford’s LID Subdivision, 15 years later – Michael Dietz, Co-Director CT NEMO
9:50 – 10:35       Municipal Stormwater Management: New Haven’s Green Infrastructure/LID and How It’s Working – Giovanni Zinn, City Engineer, City of New Haven
10:35 – 10:45     Break
10:45 – 11:30     The UConn Experience:  Maintenance, Issues, and Benefits –  Michael Dietz, Co-Director CT NEMO
11:30 – 12:15     Commercial:  National Case Studies and a Toolbox that Encourages Developers to “Do the Right Thing” – David Sousa, Planner & Landscape Architect, CDM Smith
12:15 – 12:45     Panel Question & Answer Session with David Dickson, Michael Dietz, David Sousa, and Giovanni Zinn

1:00                      Lunch (Optional)

March 22nd, starting 8:30am.
Location:
UConn Middlesex County Extension Office
1066 Saybrook Road
Haddam, CT 06438

Register online here

Food On A Stick, 4-Ring Circus, and a Fragile Planet

ARTFARM's Circus For A Fragile Planet is billed as the "Keynote Performance" for the 43rd Annual New England Environmental Education Alliance Annual Conference to be held in late September at the Incarnation Center in Ivoryton CT. Environmental Educators from all over New England and the Northeast and even a few from Canada will be attending. The conference theme is: Arena of Issues and Solutions in a Changing World and has Four Rings of Focus:
• Cultural Diversity
• Environmental Literacy
• Professional Development and Leadership
• Model Programs that Work
Sue Quincy, the conference organizer, invites any and all interested parties to attend and seek registration information at the NEEEA conference website.

Dic Wheeler, the Director of Art-Farm, says that this is an exciting show for the Circus. Wheeler says, "I particularly enjoy performing for predominantly adult audiences as I can go a little deeper with the science. The most challenging are the audiences that include [a wide age range of] 2 and 3 year olds, teenagers and adults -- who do we target? The circus act appeals to everyone, but the science has to be presented at a certain level so that it doesn't make the littlest ones tune out or seem patronizing to the adults."

The Circus has done performances at several colleges over the past 18 months, including Wesleyan, Central CT, and SUNY Cobbleskill, which is how the NEEEA Conference organizers became aware of the Circus. Wheeler expects the NEEEA conference will be a very positive experience because the audience will appreciate the fun approach to environmental education, agree with the message, and probabaly have some useful feedback to offer, with a sharp eye on the content of the Circus.

Ms. Quincy has related that this is a very fun and effective conference full of camraderie and community in which educators exchange ideas and information and infuse each other's viewpoints by sharing success stories from their states and participating in interactive and hands-on sessions. At this conference, educators obtain materials and resources that they take back to their areas where they can directly apply and turn into solutions.

Because the economy is a big challenge these days and budgets are strapped, many of the educators who count on attending this conference every year are using their own personal time and funds to be there. Some of those attendees will turn the conference into a family vacation of sorts, combining the travel into both work and fun. With that in consideration, the conference is a family friendly event with events and outings incorporated. In keeping with the fun and showcasing the Circus for a Fragile Planet as the keynote performance, the food offerings this year will be "food on a stick" items. Yum!

A new feature of the conference this year is the Richard Haley Memorial Quilt Auction. Richard Haley was a true environmental leader in the state and a unique individual. The quilt auction will benefit environmental educators who wish to attend a conference or training seminar. The quilts are all hand made locally - more information can be found at the web site of the CT Outdoor & Environmental Education Association