Mass ECAN April News
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Happy Spring and Happy Earth Month! Mass ECAN members think about environmental challenges and solutions all year long. But with Earth Day around the corner, this can be a great month to engage with others on these issues and share how everyone can contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation. Many behavioral scientists believe that one of the most impactful things we can do individually to address climate change is to talk about it within our social circles. See Yale Climate Connections, Columbia Climate School, or Katharine Hayhoe's new book for inspiration on how to have these important conversations.
See below for news specifically curated for our community of practice:
Feel free to forward this newsletter and invite colleagues to join us!
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Best,
Melissa Ocana
Climate Adaptation Coordinator, UMass Amherst
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Networking Event: Invasive Species and Climate Change
May 5th, 12:00pm - 1:15pm
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Mass ECAN Expert Work Group Spotlight
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We heard your request for more updates from our affiliated work groups, so we will highlight one each month to learn about their latest activities. As a reminder, our small work groups are specifically for experts on various climate adaptation topics that require cross-organizational collaboration for success. We share work group products here in the newsletter for the rest of our community to run with. See a summary of all our work groups here.
"Slow the Flow" Expert Work Group
Climate change will likely exacerbate the adverse impacts of development and existing stressors on our rivers and streams. The “Slow the Flow” Group explores adaptation techniques to reduce the impacts of extreme and variable flows, and the increased occurrence and severity of floods and droughts. From our kick-off in Sept. 2019, we have focused on identifying and understanding watershed management techniques that restore natural flow complexity, reconnect floodplains, and support natural ecosystems. In our first year, two subgroups emerged on: Watershed-Scale Collaboration and Quantification of Watershed Resiliency Interventions.
Our first subgroup has since convened leaders of existing watershed-scale collaboratives to learn from and with each other. In 2022 and 2023, we are developing a watershed-scale climate collaboration toolkit and hosting a Summit. Stay tuned!
If you are an expert interested in joining the “Slow the Flow” quarterly meetings where we share on topics ranging from state and regional resources to watershed modeling, please contact Rosalie Starvish or Julianne Busa.
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Every month, we highlight someone in our community of practice so you can learn about a variety of adaptation work and "meet" a new colleague!
 Carolyn Meklenberg
Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Program Greater Boston Regional Coordinator,
MA Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs
Bio: Carolyn started her journey into environmental work after college with AmeriCorps on Cape Cod, followed by her first job with Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust, where she dabbled in invasive species removal, fish monitoring, environmental education, and community engagement. Inspired by the relationship between community and land, she pursued an M.A. in Urban & Environmental Planning & Policy from Tufts University. A planning internship with the City of Medford further sparked her interest in helping communities adapt to climate change, which she now does full-time with MVP. Carolyn lives near Boston’s waterfront and enjoys spotting jellyfish and great egrets in the Harbor.
Climate adaptation project: In addition to her work with communities on their local adaptation projects funded by MVP, Carolyn is supporting stakeholder engagement for the Massachusetts Climate Change Risk Assessment. The assessment will compile existing data—including information from MVP reports—to create a priority ranking of climate change impacts and their urgency to guide future state actions. It will also inform the 2023 update to the State Hazard Mitigation & Climate Adaptation Plan (SHMCAP); which was the first document of its kind in the US to integrate climate adaptation into a state hazard mitigation plan. To learn more, contact Carolyn.
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Funding Opportunity - Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) FY23 Planning Grant. The MVP Program offers planning grants to municipalities to assess their vulnerability to and prepare for climate change impacts, build community resilience, and receive designation as an MVP Community. Submit applications here by 6/7.
Funding Opportunity - Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) FY23 Action Grant. The MVP Program offers action grants to municipalities that have completed the MVP planning process to invest in municipal priorities that build resilience. Submit applications here by 5/5.
Funding Opportunity - National Coastal Resilience Fund. This National Fish and Wildlife Foundation program invests in conservation projects that restore or expand natural features such as coastal marshes and wetlands, dune and beach systems, oyster and coral reefs, forests, coastal rivers and floodplains, and barrier islands that minimize the impacts of storms and other events. See the Request for Proposals and submit by 4/21.
Funding Opportunity - Landscape Conservation Catalyst Fund. The Catalyst Fund strives to accelerate the pace and practice of landscape conservation across the United States by making strategic investments in strengthening the collaborative infrastructure and coordination capacity of place-based, community-grounded Landscape Conservation Partnerships. Submit proposals by 4/22.
Funding Opportunity - Southeast New England Program (SNEP) Watershed Implementation Grants. Restore America’s Estuaries offers grants to target water pollution, habitat degradation, and other high-priority environmental issues to foster sustainable coastal and watershed communities. See the Request for Proposals and submit Letters of Interest by 4/26.
Funding Opportunity - National Estuary Program Coastal Watersheds Grant. Restore America’s Estuaries administers this program to support projects that address urgent and challenging issues threatening the well-being of coastal and estuarine areas in order to build stronger, more resilient communities, particularly with respect to climate change, sea level rise, and related issues. See the Request for Proposals and submit Letters of Interest by 5/27.
Event - Science Bringing Solutions: Delivering Environmental Improvement to Southeastern Coastal New England. Join the EPA Southeast New England Program (SNEP) Research Symposium to learn about and share progress in understanding and solving common environmental challenges throughout the SNEP region. Register here. 5/18, 8:30am - 5:00pm.
Webinars - Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) of Adaptation Progress and Successes Series, National Adaptation Forum and EcoAdapt.
Webinar - Learning from the Massachusetts Vulnerability Program in Greater Boston. The UMass Boston Sustainable Solutions Lab is presenting research on the MVP program, its challenges and opportunities to expand or complement state and local climate adaptation planning and implementation at the multi-city and regional levels, and incorporation of environmental justice. Register here. 4/13, 12:00pm.
Webinar - Northeast Drought Early Warning System, Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center. Learn about the System, which uses new and existing networks of federal, tribal, state, local, and academic partnerships to make climate and drought science accessible and useful for decision-makers and stakeholders. Join here on 4/13 at 4:00pm.
Course - Invasive Knotweeds, Native Plant Trust. Learn how knotweed management contributes to a more climate-resilient future and ways to integrate new scientific findings into existing conservation practices. To learn more, see these resources and register here. 4/28, 6:30pm - 8:30pm and 4/30, 10:00am - 12:00pm.
Job - Senior Environmental Planner, Metropolitan Area Planning Council, Boston. Promote the protection and sustainable management of natural resources and advance climate resiliency and equity in the Metro Boston region.
Job - Policy Analyst, Mass Audubon, Lincoln. Boost Mass Audubon's efforts to advance an ambitious legislative and policy agenda to protect the nature of Massachusetts and stabilize the climate system.
Job - Managing Director, Stone Living Lab, Boston. Advance research, education, and policy to further climate resilience, while maximizing social, economic and environmental co-benefits.
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In case you've been wondering what to read next...
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New IPCC Report: Last week’s Working Group III contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report focused on climate change mitigation, including global progress, pledges and pathways. See a summary here, highlights according to the authors here, and some hopeful takeaways here.
- Nature-Based Solutions Report: The National Wildlife Federation and EcoAdapt developed Incorporating Nature-based Solutions into Community Climate Adaptation Planning to promote approaches for overcoming barriers to the adoption of NBS and highlight funding mechanisms that can help communities implement nature-based approaches. It is designed specifically to align with the Climate Resilience Toolkit's "Steps to Resilience" planning framework.
- Climate Anxiety Podcast: Understandably, you may be feeling overwhelmed by the weight of climate change and finding it hard to talk about. You are not alone! Consider checking out Everything's Changing, a podcast about climate anxiety co-hosted by Mass ECAN member, Rebecca Shoer, that explores what climate change really means for our communities and what we can do to help.
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Have Something to Add?
Sharing in the Newsletters
Do you have something related to climate adaptation that you would like to see in a future newsletter? If you have project, job posting, event, outreach product, or something else that you’d like to submit for consideration, you can fill out this google form. Please note that this does not guarantee inclusion. We’ll select the climate adaptation items most relevant to our community of practice to continue to provide a curated newsletter. We look forward to hearing from you!
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Why am I getting this email?
Welcome to Mass ECAN!
You are receiving this email because you joined Mass ECAN.
Welcome to a supportive community of climate adaptation practitioners and researchers who are interested in ecosystem resilience and natural resources conservation in Massachusetts.
Mass ECAN is creating a space for us to learn from and with each other. Together, we can build capacity for climate adaptation that promotes ecosystem resilience and weaves natural resources conservation into actions across sectors. Mass ECAN is coordinated by UMass Extension. |
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