Climate Adaptation & Resiliency

Advancing Adaptation and Resilience in a Changing Climate

Invasive Plant Symposium Early Registration Ending

CIPWG SYMPOSIUM: Invasive Plants in Our Changing World: Learn from the Past, Prepare for the Future Presented by the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG)   Tuesday, October 11, 2016 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Student Union, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT   This 8th biennial conference features national, regional, and local experts as well as […]

2016 UConn Master Composter Program

Become a UConn Master Composter! The purpose of the Master Composter Program is to provide local compost enthusiasts with the tools and information necessary to educate and teach interested community members about composting and reducing the amount of solid waste sent to the state’s incinerators and landfills. Participants would attend classroom sessions at Auer Farm […]

UConn Extension Hosts Fall Open House

North Haven—UConn Extension’s New Haven County Extension Center invites the public to a Fall Open House on Thursday, September 15, 2016 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at 305 Skiff Street, North Haven. The New Haven County Extension Resource Council, Inc. (NHCERC, Inc.), a volunteer organization supporting the educational outreach programs based in this center, […]

National Preparedness Month

September is recognized as National Preparedness Month (NPM) which serves as a reminder that we all must take action to prepare, now and throughout the year, for the types of emergencies that could affect us where we live, work, and also where we visit. Due to the success of last year’s theme, “Don’t Wait, Communicate. Make Your […]

Early Registration Ends 9/12 for Invasive Plant Symposium

CIPWG SYMPOSIUM: Invasive Plants in Our Changing World: Learn from the Past, Prepare for the Future Presented by the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG)   Tuesday, October 11, 2016 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Student Union, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT This 8th biennial conference features national, regional, and local experts as well as citizen […]

UConn to Host Invasive Plant Conference on Oct. 11

UConn to host major invasive plant conference on October 11  The Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG) will present a symposium on Tuesday, October 11, 2016 at the Student Union, University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT. The symposium will take place from 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. The symposium theme is Invasive Plants in Our […]

New Website Launched to Help Coastal Property Owners and Beach Associations

GROTON, CT—Connecticut Sea Grant announces a new website intended to assist coastal Connecticut beach property owners and beach associations with hazards such as impacts from storms and associated erosion and flooding.  The new site helps users evaluate threats and prepare to protect property from further damage.   A variety of actions, depending on the scale of […]

Internship Program Provides Credentials for Job Search

By Kim Colavito Markesich Originally published by Naturally@UConn on July 26, 2016 According to a 2012 survey of employers conducted by the Chronicle of Higher Education and American Public Media’s Marketplace, an internship is the single most important credential for recent college graduates in their job search. The UConn Extension/4-H Internship Program was created to […]

Water Conservation Tips

We’re having a dry summer in Connecticut. There are many simple steps for you to conserve water at home, including: - Taking shorter showers - Running dishwashers and laundry machines with full loads - Shutting off water while washing dishes, shaving, brushing teeth, and lathering up to wash hands, rather than running the water continuously […]

An Opportunity to Explore Outside the Box with UConn Extension

By Tom Martella UConn Extension Summer Intern   Often times students at my age find themselves concerned that the subject matter they have been studying for the past two, three, or even four years is not what they see themselves doing for the rest of their lives. Numerous questions begin to arise: Is it too […]

Bug Week Offers Programs For Whole Family

UConn Extension’s Bug Week is right around the corner, and we have programs for the whole family. Bugs are the unsung heroes of our ecosystem, providing services such as pollination and natural pest control. However, bugs don’t stop at environmental benefits. They have also impacted our culture through the manufacturing of silk, sources of dyes, wax […]

Citizen Science & the CT Woodland Owner

Written by Nancy Marek Scott Matties was checking his mailbox one late winter afternoon when he saw three shadowy figures cut across Ridge Road heading for his property. The shadows did not move like dogs. Domestic cats are not that big, he thought. He dashed to the back of his house and froze: three young […]

UConn Climate Corps

UConn Extension’s Chet Arnold, Juliana Barrett and Bruce Hyde are part of a team that received funding from the University as part of the Academic Plan Proposal Awards. Other team members include: Mark Boyer (Geography), Maria Chrysochoou (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Sylvain DeGuise (Pathobiology), and John Volin (Natural Resources and the Environment). This project will […]

Wild and Wonderful Insects of New England

Written by Pamm Cooper Toward the end of spring and the beginning of summer, I find that the most interesting insects are to be found. While spring offers some really good forester caterpillars and their attractive moths, among other things, nature seems to me to save the best for last, it seems to me. From […]

Emergency Preparedness for Families in Coastal Communities in Southeastern Connecticut

UConn Extension has received a two-year grant from USDA-NIFA to work with residents in four Southeastern Connecticut coastal communities promoting storm (coastal or heavy precipitation event) preparedness. The coastal communities of Connecticut and Rhode Island are impacted by flooding, storm surge, and wind causing property damage during major storm events such as nor’easters and hurricanes. […]

Telling Stories with Maps

Emily Wilson wrote a blog post for Map@Syst on the story maps being created by UConn Extension: CLEAR’s Extension faculty have long used maps to educate land use decision makers and the public about Connecticut’s landscape and natural resources.  The Connecticut’s Changing Landscape (CCL) research project has been the foundation of the education.  CCL is […]

Looking for Volunteer Gardens in Connecticut

Lily Leaf Beetle Biological Control 2016 – Looking for Volunteer Gardens in Connecticut  Researchers at UConn are conducting a lily leaf beetle biological control project during the summer of 2016. If you grow lilies in Connecticut, have a minimum of 12 plants in the lily family (e.g., Oriental lilies, Asiatic lilies, Turk’s Cap lilies, or […]

Obscure Mealybug Confirmed in CT Nursery

By: Joan Allen UConn Plant Diagnostic Lab   The obscure mealybug (Pseudococcus viburni) has been confirmed for the first time in Connecticut.  High populations were present on numerous host plants in a Connecticut nursery in the fall of 2015.  Samples were submitted to the UConn Plant Diagnostic Lab for identification by Donna Ellis, UConn Nursery […]

2016 Turfgrass Field Day

 The 2016 Turfgrass Field Day at the University of Connecticut offers exciting educational opportunities for turfgrass professionals of all levels. The date of the Field Day has been selected in order to provide the best opportunity to view the research plots when they are under the greatest summer stress. Cutting edge research in the areas […]

Poop Happens

By Diane Wright Hirsch, UConn Extension Educator   Farm animals poop. Why should that matter to me…a frequent farm visitor? We all poop. Dogs poop, cats poop, cows and even goats poop. It is a natural process that rids our bodies of indigestible food and waste products. Unfortunately, it is also a way to carry […]

Did You Know: Mapping the Industry

  Shellfish aquaculture is a large and growing part of Connecticut’s agriculture sector, but site selection is a major challenge. Farmers cultivate oysters, clams and scallops in designated areas of Long Island Sound. Those sites are considered public property and are leased from the state. Farmers need to identify growing areas that are biologically productive […]

Did You Know: Drones at Work

Mapping Great Gull Island with an Unmanned Aircraft Assistant Extension Educator Joel Stocker spends a lot of his work and personal time documenting changes to the shoreline. In 2010 he contacted Helen Hays, asking if he could capture photographs over Great Gull Island with his homemade drone. She agreed. While on the island, Helen told […]

Did You Know: Climate Adaptation

One Size Fits All Won’t Work When the subject of climate change comes up, the first thing that comes to mind for many people is the impact of sea level rise on coastal communities. While the impacts of Tropical Storm Irene and Superstorm Sandy grab the headlines, with dramatic pictures of flooding, collapsed houses and […]

Spirit & Sense of Place in Relation to the Naugatuck River Greenway

Posted on September 25, 2015 on Extension Community & Economic Development By John McDonald, Extension Intern   The Romans advanced the concept of the genius loci, or protective spirit dwelling in a certain place. The same idea, minus the superstitious trappings of polytheism, is today reflected in the notions of spirit and sense of place. Spirit of […]

Did You Know: Lily Leaf Beetle

A Sustainable and Viable Non-Pesticide Alternative Release and monitoring of two distinct biological control agents (the parasitoid wasps Tetrastichus setifer and Diaparsis jucunda) for biological control of lily leaf beetle began in Connecticut in 2012 under the direction of Extension Educator Donna Ellis. These beneficial insects have also been released in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, […]

Let’s Talk Trails

Originally Posted on October 23, 2015 By John McDonald, Extension Intern   The Let’s Talk Trails event held in October at Torrington City Hall was arguably a gathering of the most important people involved in trail development, construction and maintenance in the state of Connecticut. Bruce Donald, Chairman of the Connecticut Greenways Council and President of […]