May 25, 2017
 
The Resilience Roundup highlights  CIRCA's presence in the news; provides links to recent local, state, and national news articles related to resilience and adaptation; and announces resources, events, and funding opportunities. Learn more about CIRCA at circa.uconn.edu.
 
announcements  
Resources
Resources

livingbreakwater


CIRCA awarded a Matching Funds grant to the Stratford Point Living Breakwaters project led by Jennifer Mattei at Sacred Heart University.


Check out the CIRCA blog on the project:

Led by researchers at Sacred Heart University, this project expands an existing living shoreline project at Stratford Point, Fairfield County, Connecticut. On-going coastal restoration efforts and research at the site consist of an artificial reef, smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) marsh, high marsh, coastal dune and upland woody/grassland mosaics. In total, the project will provide an additional 750 feet of coastal erosion control, 4.5 acres of intertidal habitat, 1.5 acres of coastal dune habitat and 25 acres of woodland/meadow mix. Subsequent monitoring will provide additional understanding regarding the potential effectiveness of living shorelines as a means to increase coastal resilience and will inform future designs/guidelines for Connecticut and coastal communities in New England.
naturebasedsolutions

disasterrecoverylisting

Funding and Technical Assistance Resources from CT Recovers, Long Term Recovery Committee website

A compilation of resources that can provide help and guidance for individuals, businesses and municipalities in recovering  from disaster and preparing for future events.

Resources described below contain a wide range of federal, private, and non-profit funding, program and technical assistance resources that may be available pre and/or post disaster. The list includes: 

1. Federal disaster recovery funding opportunities, technical guidance, and program resources 
2. National resources for State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) governments
3. Other federal funding programs that are available to tribal and local governments through a congressional supplemental allocation 
4. Federal technical assistance to tribal and local governments to better prepare them for future disaster recovery






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RAINEupdate

US EPA New England Resilience and Adaptation in New England database

Here's what's new:

Almost 200 communities are now included the database! 196 to be exact. Communities include any group of people working on or planning for climate change adaptation such as, tribes, municipalities, cities, towns, states, specific New England waters, regional planning commissions, and other groups.

Two new spotlights:

o    Mattapoisett, MA - recently conducted a vulnerability assessment for their wastewater and drinking water systems and created "Weather Ready Mattapoisett" to help their community be more resilient for the future. Mattapoisett is also featured as a case study in the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit.                                                                                                                                  
o    West Haven, CT- is removing homes that experience repetitive loss and restoring the land to its natural state.

Reports have been updated and are easier to read.  

60 communities have joined climate and resilience programs in our region since the last update. These include Massachusetts' Green Communities, Compact of Mayors, and the National Weather Service StormReady program.


    

FundingAnouncment
Funding

LISfuturesfund

2017 Long Island Sound Futures Fund

NFWF is pleased to announce the 2017 Request for Proposals for the Long Island Sound Futures Fund (LISFF). The RFP will close on June 22.

The RFP priorities include the following: 1) Clean Water and Healthy Watersheds; 2) Thriving Habitats and Abundant Wildlife; and 3) Educating to Engage Sustainable and Resilient Communities. The RFP is similar to previous years, but has been updated to include Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York for water quality nitrogen removal projects within the Long Island Sound watershed.

There is one webinar open for registration (webinar information is below). We encourage potential applicants to fully review the RFP and other supporting materials found on the website. 
 
Applicant Webinar 2: 5/31 from 1:30pm to 3:00pm ET ( Register here)


If you have any questions, please contact:

Mike Lagua 
Coordinator, Long Island Sound and Delaware River
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
1133 Fifteenth Street, NW 
Suite 1100
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-595-2612  
Fax: 202-857-0162




TODgrantprogram

2017 Responsible Growth and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Grant Program

The Office of Policy and Management (OPM) is pleased to announce a Request for Applications (RFA) for the 2017 Responsible Growth and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Grant Program.  Municipalities and Regional Councils of Governments (COGs) are invited to apply for grants ranging between $10,000 and $2,000,000, for a wide range of planning and construction projects to advance State, regional, and local goals for responsible growth and transit-oriented development.  Joint applications and  partnerships are encouraged, and may also include non-profit and private entities, where appropriate.  Priority may be given to applicants which have received implementation grants under CTNext's Innovation Places program.
 
Interested applicants must meet the project eligibility requirements and submit a completed Application Form as detailed in the RFA.  Applications will be evaluated by OPM, in consultation with other agencies, based on the degree to which they satisfy the Program Objectives identified in Section C of the RFA.  Proposals will be selected on a rolling basis, and selected applicants will be expected to collaborate with OPM, and other State agencies, to develop contract agreements and a scope of work structured around the applicant's initial proposal.
 
Applications for the 2017 program are due Friday June 23, 2017.
 
All correspondence relating to this program shall be directed to the Official State Contact, Matthew Pafford, at either Matthew.Pafford@ct.gov or Office of Policy and Management, 450 Capitol Avenue MS# 54ORG, Hartford, CT 06106-1379, in accordance with the requirements of the RFA.
 
The 2017 Responsible Growth and Transit-Oriented Development RFA is available at the following links:
 


 
Back to Announcements

 
News

Local & State News Clips


regionstrongerCT 
May 12, 2017- Making Region Stronger Is Focus Of Resilience Project

A yearlong initiative has yielded recommendations for three projects that could be undertaken to provide examples of how to make southeastern Connecticut better able to withstand the challenges of climate change, as well as changing social and economic conditions.

"This is really about how do we make southeastern Connecticut stronger, for whatever comes, whether it's extreme weather or a recession," Adam Whelchel, director of science for The Nature Conservancy's Connecticut chapter, said Monday.

Working with a $75,000 grant from The Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut, the conservancy joined with the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments and the Southeastern Connecticut Enterprise Region on the project. It brought together town planners as well as representatives of more than 50 businesses, public health and social service agencies and institutions in nine towns: East Lyme, Salem, Montville, Waterford, New London, Norwich, Ledyard, Groton and Stonington.

The result is a report titled " Southeastern Connecticut Regional Resilience Vision Project. "
Summarized in the report are the outcome of workshop discussions focused on challenges and possible solutions in six areas: water, food, ecosystem services, transportation, energy and the regional economy.



NatlNews

climateNational News Clips


dominoeffect
May 17, 2017- Domino Effect: The Myriad Impacts of Warming on an East Coast Estuary

The 140,000 acres of tidal wetlands in Delaware Bay sustain hundreds of aquatic and terrestrial species, including the second-largest population of shorebirds in North America. Yet, as sea level increases - now rising at about 1.2-inches per decade and expected to dramatically accelerate this century - this habitat is vanishing.
 
"The Delaware estuary is like the Mississippi mouth - naturally muddy and wetland rich," says Danielle Kreeger, science director for the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary. "Most of your signature fauna depend on the marshes for breeding, nursery, and feeding. We're losing an acre a day now, but we're probably going to see a colossal blowout in the next 10 to 20 years."
 
Delaware Bay, one of the largest and richest estuaries in the United States, is a case study in how warming oceans, associated storms and sea-level rise are eroding wetlands, damaging water quality, and unraveling terrestrial and near-shore aquatic ecosystems in many parts of the world. In Delaware Bay, the victims include such interdependent organisms as trees, marsh grasses, fish that use the wetlands for spawning and nursery habitat, oysters, mussels, crustaceans, shorebirds, marsh birds, and waterfowl.

Continue...
 



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robertthorson
May 10, 2017- Robert Thorson: Climate Change And The Nuclear Power Riddle

Forty years ago, on April 30, 1977, thousands of protesters converged on Seabrook, N.H., to protest nuclear power generation in the United States. My sympathies were with them.
 
Their signs read "Split Wood Not Atoms," and "Go Fishing, Not Fission." Led by the Clamshell Alliance, they created a national backlash against nuclear power that tipped government policies toward carbon-based fuels, especially coal-fired electrical plants.
 
Since then, real clamshells are being challenged by oceans acidified by carbon dioxide pollution. Firewood is split by gasoline-powered splitters, thereby burning and carbonizing the air. Over-fishing, not over-fission, is causing the collapse of global marine ecosystems.
 
(...)
 
Climate change is no boogeyman. Driving that change are electric generation plants fired by coal, petroleum and gas in lieu of carbon-free nuclear ones. The recent glut of inexpensive fracked gas has mothballed nuclear progress.
 
Luckily, the threat of global sea level rise is far from being a boogeyman. It's so straightforward that it can't be explained away as fake news by a clever press secretary. Nor by an Environmental Protection Agency leader who's reversing national progress in shuttering coal-fired power plants.

Continue...

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  Alaskathawingsoil
May 8, 2017- 'We All Knew This Was Coming': Alaska's Thawing Soils Are Now Pouring Carbon Dioxide Into The Air
 
Even as the Trump administration weighs withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement, a new scientific paper has documented growing fluxes of greenhouse gases streaming into the air from the Alaskan tundra, a long-feared occurrence that could worsen climate change.
 
The new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that frozen northern soils - often called permafrost - are unleashing an increasing amount of carbon dioxide into the air as they thaw in summer or subsequently fail to refreeze as they once did, particularly in late fall and early winter.
 
"Over a large area, we're seeing a substantial increase in the amount of CO2 that's coming out in the fall," said Roisin Commane, a Harvard atmospheric scientist who is the lead author of the study. The research was published by 19 authors from a variety of institutions, including NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

  
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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