The Resilience Roundup highlights announcements, events, and funding opportunities along with links to the previous month's local, state, and national resilience news.
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Resilient Connecticut - Project Updates
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CIRCA Request for Qualifications: Deadline Extended
The deadline for UConn CIRCA's
Request for Qualifications (RFQ)
for Engagement, Planning, Design, Architectural, Engineering Services for the Resilient Connecticut project has recently been extended. Proposals will be accepted through
March 19, 2020.
Be sure to review the Addendum for
amendments to the RFQ and responses to requests for clarifications.
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CIRCA has Joined YouTube
CIRCA is excited to announce that we have joined YouTube! Please subscribe to our channel for webinar recordings, product trainings, and other updates from the CIRCA team.
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Resilient Connecticut Coordinating with the GC3
Last fall, Governor Lamont issued
Executive Order 3
, which “expands the responsibilities of the Governor's Council on Climate Change, increases its membership, and directs the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to evaluate pathways to transition to a 100 percent clean energy grid by 2040”. It also directed the Governor's Council on Climate Change (GC3) to, among other things, prepare and report to the Governor on a revised statewide Adaptation and Resilience Plan for Connecticut by January 15, 2021. This will be the first update to the 2011
Connecticut Climate Change Preparedness Plan
.
CIRCA staff, through the State Agencies Fostering Resilience committee and partnership with the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, has sought to coordinate Resilient Connecticut activities with the GC3 efforts where possible and share products that might inform the new plan. Meetings of the full GC3 are noticed
here
and subcommittee and working groups are noticed
here.
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March 19, 2020, 7:30am - 12:00pm - Converted to a webinar
Eversource Energy, 107 Selden Street, Berlin, CT
This EBC Connecticut Program will discuss the decision making process that remediation site contractors should undertake when they encounter “contaminated” soil that has to be managed. Often, soil samples are tested to satisfy end facility receipt requirements and the analysis presents contaminants that may not have been expected. The presenters will offer solutions for soil that may contain contaminants like petroleum hydrocarbons, lead, PCB’s and PFAS compounds.
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Managed Retreat in the Age of Climate Change
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This event was postponed until the fall.
When talking about community response to climate change issues, retreat is the "R" word. But it is already happening in coastal states throughout the country, including here in Connecticut. It bears the question; What does it mean to a community and how do we manage it? This workshop,
hosted b
y Connecticut Sea Grant and the UConn Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR),
is intended to begin the discussion about managed retreat in the face of climate change.
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Urban Living in the Age of Climate Change: Sustainable Local Development in Hartford and Connecticut
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This event was postponed until the fall.
The Urban and Community Studies Program of the University of Connecticut, the Center for Urban and Global Studies at Trinity College, and the Center for Montessori Studies at the University of Hartford along with the URBAN Hartford node invite you to participate in a 2-day symposium that will draw students, faculty, community partners, local officials, and the public into discussion of the climate futures of Hartford, other cities and towns in Connecticut, and neighboring areas of New England. The full day of events take place in downtown Hartford on Friday, March 27, with site-specific experiential opportunities on Thursday, March 26.
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Long Island Sound Futures Fund 2020
$3 million is available in environmental grants focusing on the Long Island Sound Watershed. Potential topics for planning or implementation grants include water quality, education and outreach, coastal resilience, sustainability, habitat restoration, species preservation, and restoring fish passages. The Request for Proposals will open in March, however those interested are encouraged to
submit a one-paragraph project idea to
[email protected]
.
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Wildlife Conservation Society's Climate Adaptation Fund 2020
With funding managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the WCS Climate Adaptation Fund will provide up to $2.5 million in competitive grants in 2020. Awards will be made to non-profit conservation organizations for applied, on-the-ground projects focused on implementing priority conservation actions designed to help wildlife and ecosystems adapt to climate change at a landscape scale. Pre-proposals are due at
5:00 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, April 8, 2020.
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February 6, 2020 -
Massachusetts MVP Funding a Major Boon to Mystic Watershed Communities,
Mystic River Watershed Association
Nine communities in the Mystic River Watershed announced that they collectively secured $1,161,703 in individual and regional Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) action grants for climate resilience efforts. Of this, nearly 75% went to two regional grants focused on managing physical and social harm from major coastal storms.
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February 16, 2020 -
In Warren, Planning For Rising Sea Levels
,
Providence Journal
Tides are regularly pushing waters onto Bridge Street in Warren, flooding reaching 10 feet or more up the gently-sloping street during extreme high tides. Due to this, the town plans to dig out about 16 feet of asphalt and replace one side with a native garden and the other with water-permeable paving leading down to a new boat ramp.
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February 14, 2020 -
Orsted/Eversource State Pier Deal an Economic Opportunity For The Region,
The Day
Gov. Ned Lamont, the Connecticut Port Authority, Ørsted/Eversource and Gateway Terminal have leveraged $157 million for public infrastructure improvements that facilitate long-term economic growth for the region. Major planned upgrades will re-make State Pier into a modern, heavy-lift capable port and maintain its freight-rail link, increasing its cargo capacity for decades to come and allowing us to be a major player in the new American offshore wind industry.
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Free Seminars At Three Rivers CC On Environmental Issues,
Patch
Three Rivers Community College welcomes all to attend 14 free seminars on some of the biggest environmental issues challenging us today. Seminars will run weekly until May 6th. Topics in March include Algal Diversity and Environmental Health, Management of Recreational Fishing, and Concerns of Stormwater Pollution.
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February 11, 2020 -
How Native Tribes Are Taking the Lead on Planning for Climate Change,
Yale Environment 360
With their deep ties to the land and reliance on fishing, hunting, and gathering, indigenous tribes are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Now, native communities across North America are stepping up to adopt climate action plans to protect their way of life.
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February 13, 2020 -
Suffolk County Creates Task Force to Focus on Sea Level Rise and Coastal Erosion,
Riverhead Local
Suffolk County has established a coastal erosion and sea level rise task force. Proposed by North Fork Legislator Al Krupski, the task force's purpose is to develop strategies for dealing with severe storms, coastal erosion and rising sea levels.
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February 18, 2020 -
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, World’s Richest Person, Says He’ll Spend $10 Billion to Fight Climate Change,
The Day
On February 17th, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said that he plans to spend $10 billion of his own fortune to help fight climate change. He plans to do this through giving grants this summer to scientists, activists and nonprofits working to protect Earth.
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February 19, 2020 -
NASA Prepares for New Science Flights Above Coastal Louisiana,
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
As sea levels rise, some areas of the Mississippi Delta are drowning while others are actually gaining mass. Beginning in April, the Delta-X science team, led by Principal Investigator Marc Simard of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will be collecting data by air and by boat to better understand the reason behind this.
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February 21, 2020 -
Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz Unveils ‘Climate Resilience Plan’,
Nisqually Valley News
Washington State Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Hilary Franz unveiled a plan for climate resistance in Washington at a press conference on February 20th, stating that Washington’s rural communities are “the most impacted” by climate change.
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The Resilience Roundup highlights
CIRCA's
presence in the news, provides links to recent local/state/national news articles related to resilience and adaptation, and announces upcoming events and seminars.
The Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation's (CIRCA) mission is to increase the resilience and sustainability of vulnerable communities along Connecticut's coast and inland waterways to the growing impacts of climate change and extreme weather on the natural, built, and human environment. The institute is located at the University of Connecticut's Avery Point campus and includes faculty from across the university. CIRCA is a partnership between UConn and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP).
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