Soak Up the Rain New England Webinar Archive
2021-Present
- The New England Stormwater Retrofit Manual: Upgrading the Performance of your Stormwater Management System for Better Watershed Health, July 26, 2022
- Building Equity into Nature-Based Solutions for Massachusetts Communities, June 23, 2022
- Shovel-Ready and Beyond! A Green Infrastructure Case Study in the Three Bays Watershed, April 27, 2022
- Design with Maintenance in Mind: Green Infrastructure Trainings and Techniques in Providence, RI, November 22, 2021
- Building Greener Boston: Creating and Connecting the Green Infrastructure Workforce, September 22, 2021
- Managing Phosphorus Pollution with Stormwater Bioretention Systems: A Soil Study, June 8, 2021
- Building Greener Futures: Green Jobs Training and Bioswales in New Haven, CT, January 27, 2021
The New England Stormwater Retrofit Manual: Upgrading the Performance of your Stormwater Management System for Better Watershed Health
Original Airdate: Tuesday, July 26, 2022, 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM ET
The Stormwater Retrofit Guidance Manual, released July 2022, provides research-based guidance and techniques for planning, siting, and designing retrofit stormwater control measures (SCMs) to manage stormwater in existing or reconstructed development situations where regulatory requirements do not dictate specifications. It also presents an approach for crediting pollutant and runoff volume reductions associated with these measures. The Stormwater Retrofit Guidance Manual was developed by the University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center and VHB with financial support from the Southeast New England Program (SNEP) Network and technical support from other SNEP Network partners, state agencies, and EPA Region 1. You can view the manual at: https://snepnetwork.org/stormwater-retrofit-manual/.
Presenters:
- James Houle, University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center
- Theresa McGovern, VHB
- Nate Pacheco, VHB
Recording not yet available. Speaker slides available here: The New England Stormwater Retrofit Manual: Upgrading the Performance of your Stormwater Management System for Better Watershed Health (pdf)
Building Equity into Nature-Based Solutions for Massachusetts Communities
Original Airdate: Thursday, June 23, 2022, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM ET
Equity and nature-based solutions are fundamental principles for successful community climate resilience. Green infrastructure and nature-based solutions can protect water quality, build resiliency to heat waves, address flooding and other climate-exacerbated natural hazards, and improve overall quality of life in communities where they are implemented. Equitable community engagement and participation is key to developing nature-based solutions that fully benefit local residents. This webinar, featuring members of the MA Ecosystem Climate Adaptation Network (Mass ECAN) Mainstreaming Nature-Based Solutions Expert Work Group, showcases how Massachusetts programs and organizations are supporting equitable nature-based solutions at the local level.
Presenters:
- Gretchen Rabinkin - Executive Director, Boston Society of Landscape Architects
- Hillary King - Central MA Regional Coordinator, MA Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program
- Stefanie Covino - Program Manager, Blackstone Watershed Collaborative
- Perri Sheinbaum - Tufts Urban and Environmental Policy & Planning Student
- Emma Gildesgame - Climate Adaptation Scientist, The Nature Conservancy
Recording not yet available. Speaker slides available here: Building Equity in Nature-Based Solutions in MA Communities (pdf)
Shovel-Ready and Beyond! A Green Infrastructure Case Study in the Three Bays Watershed
Original Airdate: Wednesday, April 27, 2022, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM ET
Green infrastructure is a team effort, requiring buy-in from multiple agencies, partner organizations, and the public to leverage funding and sustained support through the planning, implementation, and maintenance phases. This webinar showcases how one team turned an initial $450K grant into a $2.3 million project over 6 years and counting. Speakers share their experiences and tell the story of their collaborative journey to improve stormwater management and water quality in the Three Bays watershed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Presenters:
- April Wobst, Project Manager and Restoration Ecologist at the Association to Preserve Cape Cod
- Michelle West, P.E., Senior Water Resources Engineer at Horsley Witten Group, Inc.
- Nathan Collins, P.E., Assistant Town Engineer for the Town of Barnstable, MA
Recording not yet available. Speaker slides available here: Shovel-Ready and Beyond! A Green Infrastructure Case Study in the Three Bays Watershed (pdf)
Design with Maintenance in Mind: Green Infrastructure Trainings and Techniques in Providence, RI
Original Airdate: Monday, November 22, 2021, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM ET
The success of green infrastructure implementation greatly depends on the quality of design, installation, and maintenance. The Providence Stormwater Innovation Center (PSIC) provides hands-on training and best practices for municipalities, engineers, construction companies and scientists to design and implement green infrastructure and stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP's) with maintenance in mind. In this webinar, speakers provide installation and maintenance recommendations from the $1.5M project to construct 42 stormwater BMP's in Providence, Rhode Island's Roger Williams Park – the presentation includes planting considerations for green infrastructure installations.
Recording not yet available. Speaker slides available here:
- Ryan Kopp, Stormwater Coordinator, Providence Stormwater Innovation Center (PSIC) (pdf)
- Brian Byrnes, Deputy Superintendent, City of Providence Parks Department, and member PSIC (pdf)
- Lee Ann Freitas, Roger Williams Park Botanical Center Director, City of Providence Parks Department, and member PSIC (pdf)
Managing Phosphorus Pollution with Stormwater Bioretention Systems: A Soil Study
Original Airdate: Tuesday, June 8, 2021, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM EDT
Well-designed bioretention systems can be used to remove the nutrient pollutant phosphorus from stormwater. In this webinar, speakers from the University of Vermont showcase a recent research project that, with support from the EPA Office of Research and Development’s Regional Applied Research Efforts (RARE) program, explored the potential for drinking water treatment residuals (a byproduct of drinking water filtration) to bind phosphorus within bioretention soil media. Webinar speakers discuss lessons learned from many years of research on bioretention soil media, including how different installation components can remove phosphorus from runoff or potentially leach phosphorus into outflows.
Presenters:
- Dr. Stephanie Hurley, Department of Plant & Soil Science, University of Vermont
- Michael Ament, PhD Candidate, Department of Plant & Soil Science, University of Vermont
Building Greener Boston: Creating and Connecting the Green Infrastructure Workforce
Original Airdate: Wednesday, September 22, 2021, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM ET
Building a greener future requires a specialized workforce that can design, build, and maintain green infrastructure. This webinar covers strategies to connect businesses with graduates of green infrastructure training programs as demand for these skills increases in the City of Boston, Massachusetts. Speakers introduce case studies that demonstrate how investment in green jobs training can lead to more sustainable green infrastructure programs that improves the health of local communities and secures jobs for local residents.
Presenters:
- Michael Chavez, YouthBuild Boston and Built Environment Plus
- David Queeley, Codman Square Neighborhood Development Coalition
- Trevor Smith, Land Escapes, Inc. and Ecological Landscape Alliance
Building Greener Futures: Green Jobs Training and Bioswales in New Haven, CT
Original Airdate: Wednesday, January 27, 2021, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM ET
This webinar showcases how green infrastructure installations and job-training programs have improved the social, economic, and environmental health of New Haven, CT. Since 2010, the Urban Resources Initiative (URI) has partnered with the City of New Haven, EMERGE Connecticut, and the Yale School of the Environment as the sole-source contractor for tree planting, and has expanded into the construction of green infrastructure in the public right of way. Speakers from the City of New Haven and URI discuss strategies for collaboration around tree planting, bioswale design and siting, installation and maintenance, and green jobs training for community members.
Presenters:
- Colleen Murphy-Dunning, Urban Resources Initiative
- Dawn Henning, City of New Haven, CT