Join us on Zoom to learn about station topics and the 2021 Current Issue. Register for each one you want to attend to receive a unique link to participate. Recordings will be posted as soon as possible, scroll down to find them.
Recorded Webinars
Secretary Theoharides
Climate Change and Water in Massachusetts
Webinar Series Keynote
Thursday Nov 12, 2020 4pm
Recording
Imagine a World Without Water- Kelley Freda, MA DCR Water Supply Protection. 10.21.20 Recording
Getting Started on your Current Issue Research – Will Snyder, UMass Extension Tuesday Nov 17 4pm Recording
Gray/Green Infrastructure- Bill Moulton, MA DCR Water Supply Protection. Wednesday Nov 18, 4pm Recording
Just what is green and gray infrastructure? It’s more than just painting the pipes! Come learn about their benefits and disadvantages, and what communities across the Commonwealth are implementing.
Careers with Trees Thursday Nov 19 4pm Recording
Discover many of the possible ways you can have a career working with trees. Felicia Hubacz, Mass DCR Forest Health Specialist talks about traditional and non-traditional jobs with trees and hear from two women who work in the industry. Ruth Seward is the Director for Outreach & Community Engagement at Tower Hill Botanic Garden and Nicole Keleher is the Forest Health Director for Mass DCR Forest Health Program.
Using Maps to Explore our World Together – Dominique Pahlavan, MA Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.
Tuesday Nov 24 4pm Recording
This workshop will explore Climate Change and Water Management through an interactive map application created with ArcGIS Online for the 2021 Envirothon. We will look at geographic data available from Massachusetts state agencies and organizations, and from the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World, and learn how to create an interactive map using data available online. These data and mapping tools are available to all students and this workshop will show students how to create a free AGOL account.
Map Link Link to a guide of the tools available in the map.
Weathering the Drought- Brian Taylor, North and South Rivers Watershed Association.
Monday Nov 30, 4pm Recording
A presentation about drought in Massachusetts. How does it affect us and our water? What can we do about it? Understanding how our manipulation of surface and groundwater impacts a watershed and looking into how these impacts are exacerbated by unseasonable weather conditions.
Effect of Climate Change on Water Resources– Kathy Baskin, MassDEP Department of Water Resources
Wednesday Dec 2 Recording This presentation will provide an overview of the impact of increasing temperatures and changing precipitation patterns on water resources. The presentation will also provide a brief overview of climate projections for Massachusetts.
Nature for Climate Resilience: Managing and Protecting Water with Paige Dolci, Mass Audubon
Monday Dec 7 4pm Recording In this session, attendees will learn about Mass Audubon’s Shaping Climate Resilient Communities Program, a municipal outreach and technical assistance program to create healthier, more resilient communities using nature. We will explore local water issues relevant to climate resilience–including how to manage increasing stormwater runoff and improve future water security–and how Mass Audubon makes the case for choosing nature-based solutions by focusing on public health and economic benefits.
Municipal Water- Managing a Drinking Water Supply with Roger Brooks, Leominster DPW Water and Sewer Business Manager.
Wednesday Dec 9 4pm Recording
Getting clean water to your house takes more than just turning on the tap. Learn about the business side of the people and pipes and processes that make water available to homes and businesses and how they deal with that water on the other end so it can be safely returned to the watershed.
Tree Id Wednesday Dec 16 4pm Recording
Join Teresa Wolcott and Eric Deleo USDA PPQ Technicians for the Asian Longhorned Beetle Cooperative Eradication Program to learn the different parts and growing habits of trees and how to use that information to identify or key out the species.
Tree Measurement with Felicia Hubacz
Rescheduled for Feb 1 at 4pm Recording
Felicia Hubacz, DCR Forest Health Specialist takes you through the different tools and methods used to measure trees in the forest and what those measurements are used for. DBH tape optional!
Soil Conservation Best Management Practices to Build Resilience and Protect Water Quality- Joel Betts, Worcester County Conservation District Thursday Dec 10 Recording
Cover crops, no-till agriculture, rotational grazing, streamside buffers and many other practices capture carbon to build the soil, reduce pollution to our waters, and build resilience to intense weather from climate change. Project Drawdown says Conservation Agriculture could sequester over 9 gigatons of carbon dioxide in the next 30 years!
Droughts and Floods in Massachusetts? Now what? -Christine Hatch, Associate Extension Professor, Dept of Geosciences UMass Amherst
Thursday Jan 21, 4pm Recording
Where do droughts and floods come from? Why do they happen? Do they happen in New England? Often? Regional scale climate models for the northeastern United States predict changes in precipitation patterns, quantities, and intensity in the coming decades. Agricultural practices in Massachusetts and infrastructure for managing stormwater were designed based on weather patterns over the last 100 years or more. This workshop will present an overview of climate science today, predictions for our changing local climate with specific attention to the extremes. We will discuss the effects climate change may have on water resources and agricultural practice. Enacting the solutions are up to you.
Wetlands: More than just a swamp! Matt Marro, Conservation Agent for Sterling, MA. Thursday Jan 28 4pm, Recording
Freshwater Macroinvertebrates with Patrick Allison, East Quabbin Land Trust Youth Educator
Water quality testing is very useful, but it only tests the water flowing down a stream at the time of sampling. These critters live there all the time and are great indicators of water quality.
Part 1 Recording This session will focus on Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera.
Part 2 Recording Freshwater mussels and crawfish! This session builds on Part 1, but focuses on two very different groups of macroinvertebrates.
Community Climate Adaptation Planning: How to Find Resources and Funding through the Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program with Carrieanne Petrik Recording
The Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program is a state grant program through the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) that supports communities in adapting to climate change. This begins when a community applies for a planning grant that allows the community to identify the major hazards they face from a changing climate and then identify adaptations to these hazards that would build greater resiliency. Once a community identifies adaption strategies, they turn these into competitive action grant proposals that could potential be funded up between $25,000 to $2 million.
During this workshop teams will learn if their municipality has completed the MVP planning and or action grant process and all associated documents that came out of this process. Given the large impacts that water plays in our changing climate, almost all of these documents consider water in some form from nature-based solutions to flooding to assessments of harbor uses with sea level rise to assessing culverts for stream flow. We will look at a few documents that have been created by specific communities and discuss how they could be helpful to the teams in their projects. Finally, we will discuss the ways that teams can partner with their communities to help further community identified priority actions around water management and climate change and how they could possibly be funded.To learn more about MVP please visit https://www.mass.gov/service-details/mvp-program-information
Bringing Justice and Equity into the Picture with Dr Britt Crow-Miller. Recording
Massachusetts Envirothon 