The goal of every NEMO workshop is to give local decision makers some tangible action items toward protecting their municipality’s resources. These actions span a wide range, from revisions to overall town policies to very specific changes to regulations or development practices.
NEMO goes to its target audience. NEMO staff work with community contacts to ensure that the format and audience of the workshop help to maximize the chances for positive follow up. The ideal audience is a group that has representation from all of the local land use boards, as well as municipal departments (planning, engineering, public works) and any interested organizations (land trusts, chamber of commerce).
Get as many land use commissions, departments and other "players" as possible together to hear the NEMO presentaton at the same time. Have your chief elected official provide the motivation.
The workshops are free of charge, and most take about 1 hour, however additional time for discussion is strongly recommended. Depending on the presentation given, we also provide educational publications, maps, web-based information and individual consultation. If you don't see a workshop specific to your needs, contact us, we are happy to consider adding new topics!
A practical 1.5 day short course for landscapers, designers, maintenance care providers and volunteers.
Rain gardens are vegetated areas designed and built to accept stormwater runoff from surfaces including rooftops, roads and compacted soils. Rain gardens are increasingly being used by homeowners and municipalities to reduce the impact of stormwater on local waterways and the Long Island Sound.
Training schedule and links to additional information can be found on NEMO's Rain Gardens Home page. Contact CT NEMO at nemo@uconn.edu or call (860) 345-4511 for more information.
The Linking Land Use to Water Quality workshop addresses the relationship of land use to natural resource protection with an emphasis on water quality. It explains the concepts of nonpoint source pollution and watersheds as well as reviewing the impacts of land use on water resources. Natural resource-based planning is introduced as a framework for dealing with land use issues.
The workshop is free of charge and about 1 hour long. We recommend scheduling 2 hours to allow for discussion and questions. Contact CT NEMO at nemo@uconn.edu or call (860) 345-4511 to schedule a workshop.
Impervious surfaces like asphalt, concrete and rooftops generate polluted runoff and are a major indicator of the impacts of development on water resources. This workshop reviews planning and site design options to reduce both the amount and the impact of impervious surfaces. It also includes information on road and parking lot designs and alternative materials that promote infiltration. This workshop is supported by the Planning for Stormwater website in the Tools & Resources section.
The workshop is free of charge and about 1 hour long. We recommend scheduling 2 hours to allow for discussion and questions. Contact CT NEMO at nemo@uconn.edu or call (860) 345-4511 to schedule a workshop.
This presentation focuses on “restorative redevelopment” strategies and opportunities for managing stormwater in urban areas. Planning and design considerations for stormwater-friendly roads, parking lots, roofs and other stormwater-generating surfaces are reviewed. This workshop touches on all the same areas as the Planning for Stormwater workshop, but with examples drawn from urban, rather than rural or suburban, landscapes.
The workshop is free of charge and about 1 hour long. We recommend scheduling 2 hours to allow for discussion and questions. Contact CT NEMO at nemo@uconn.edu or call (860) 345-4511 to schedule a workshop.
In order to protect your town's resources and character, you first have to know what those resources are and what makes up the "character" of your town! A complete Community Resource Inventory (CRI) is made up of three different resource inventories: natural, cultural and economic. This workshop describes the importance of each, where you can get resources and information, and what to do with the inventory once it is completed. This workshop is supported the CRI Online website in the Tools & Resources section.
The workshop ends with illustrations of how to use your CRI taken from other Connecticut towns. Since so much digital mapping information is available statewide, a good portion of the workshop will be spent on step 4, assembling maps and information. This will give your community a good sense of how to get started on your own CRI.
The workshop is free of charge and about 1 hour long. We recommend scheduling 2 hours to allow for discussion and questions. Contact CT NEMO at nemo@uconn.edu or call (860) 345-4511 to schedule a workshop.
Even when land trusts and towns are actively seeking to protect open space, there is usually no concrete plan as to where, how or even why open space should be acquired. This presentation includes methods and options on how to inventory, prioritize and acquire open space.
“. . . we must realize if we take the necessary steps to first protect our unique natural resources, quality development, sensitive to those resources will follow and as a result our regions’ special character and your quality of life will be enriched.”
– Jim Gibbons, Extension Educator/Land Use Planner
The workshop is free of charge and about 1 hour long. We recommend scheduling 2 hours to allow for discussion and questions. Contact CT NEMO at nemo@uconn.edu or call (860) 345-4511 to schedule a workshop.
The NEMO Team has found there are two major stumbling blocks to local watershed efforts, an inability to get started and an overload of maps/information. This workshop and its companion publication Natural Resource-Based Planning for Watersheds—A practical Starter Kit For Watershed Projects (cover below) will outline a process that will help you get started!
 |
| Cover of the Watersheds Starter Kit booklet. |
This process is illustrated with examples from our work in the Eight Mile River Watershed Project.
The workshop is free of charge and about 1 hour long. We recommend scheduling 2 hours to allow for discussion and questions. Contact CT NEMO at nemo@uconn.edu or call (860) 345-4511 to schedule a workshop.
Is your community in the coastal area of Connecticut? If so, this workshop is your point of entry into an integrated educational program to help your town better protect priority coastal habitat areas.
The workshop is free of charge and about 1 hour long. We recommend scheduling 2 hours to allow for discussion and questions. Contact CT NEMO at nemo@uconn.edu or call (860) 345-4511 to schedule a workshop.
This workshop is also supported by a website. Take a tutorial on conducting a coastal resource inventory; access maps and information on priority coastal resource areas and coastal land cover; or link to a variety of other sites that can help you protect your valuable coastal habitat areas.
Focus on the Coast Partners Include:
Major funding support by NOAA Coastal Services Center.
The Connecticut Stormwater Quality Manual provides guidance on the measures necessary to protect the waters of the State of Connecticut from the adverse impacts of post-construction stormwater runoff. This manual focuses on site planning, source control and stormwater treatment practices and is intended for use as a planning tool and design guidance document by the regulated and regulatory communities involved in stormwater quality management.
Download the manual
On the manual: Cheryl Chase, CT DEP, (860) 424-3860, cheryl.chase@po.state.ct.us
On the workshops: Contact CT NEMO at nemo@uconn.edu or call (860) 345-4511 to schedule a workshop.
Using satellite images, the University of Connecticut Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) has produced maps and charts documenting land cover change in Connecticut from 1985 to 2002. Highlighted are developed areas as well as areas in agricultural and forest land cover. This research has for the first time provided a basis to compare land cover trends over time. This has proven especially useful in discussions on smart growth and sprawl issues that are often debated on emotion rather that hard research. The workshop reviews the research and describes how it might be used by local land use officials in resource inventories, open space plans, economic development plans and plans of conservation and development.
The workshop is free of charge and about 1.5 hours long. We recommend scheduling 2 hours to allow for discussion and questions. Contact John Rozum at john.rozum@uconn.edu or call (860) 345-5225 to schedule a workshop.
 |
The Wet Lands workshop goes over the basic functions and values of wetlands, as well as the regulatory issues surrounding wetland protection and wetland/watercourse buffers. This workshop is a partnership between Cooperative Extension and the Connecticut Sea Grant College Program.
PLEASE NOTE: This workshop is intended for land use commissions that do not have a direct regulatory role over inland wetlands and watercourses (i.e. Planning, Zoning and Conservation Commissions). Inland Wetland commission members seeking education should contact CT DEP.
The workshop is free of charge and about 1 hour long. We recommend scheduling 2 hours to allow for discussion and questions. Contact CT NEMO at nemo@uconn.edu or call (860) 345-4511 to schedule a workshop.
Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) are revolutionizing how municipal governments
and other groups work with natural resource, land use, infrastructure
and related data. A GIS uses computer technology to encode, store, analyze
and display geographic data. Increasingly, Connecticut municipalities
are using GIS to help prepare local plans of development, to manage
infrastructure and land records, to evaluate proposed developments,
to assess open space options, to plan school bus routes and for many
other applications.
The GIS in Your Town workshop is designed to introduce municipal officials and volunteers to basic GIS concepts and terminology. The workshop presents information to help organizations understand some of the planning, management, database and application issues important to successful GIS programs.
No prior knowledge of GIS is necessary and comments, questions and discussion are encouraged. The material covered in the workshop is particularly valuable to organizations that are considering or just getting started with GIS.
The workshop is free of charge and about 1 hour long. We recommend scheduling 2 hours to allow for discussion and questions. Contact CT NEMO at nemo@uconn.edu or call (860) 345-4511 to schedule a workshop.
Additional Geospatial training can be found at UConn's Center for Land Use Education and Research's Geospatial Training Program.
Forest
resources provide innumerable benefits to a community; watershed protection,
wildlife habitat, aesthetic value, recreational value and even have
the potential to provide commercial value. The Forest Stewardship workshop,
conducted by Cooperative Extension Forestry staff, can help landowners
get the information they need to help protect and manage their forested
land, now and in the future. Contact the Forestry
staff to determine what presentation is best for you.
For more information on the Forest Stewardship Program, visit the UConn Cooperative Forestry Extension website.
The workshop is free of charge and about 45 minutes long. We recommend scheduling 1.5 hours to allow for discussion and questions. Contact Tom Worthley at thomas.worthley@uconn.edu or call (860) 345-4511 to set up a workshop.
