Environmental Issues Seminar Course – A Two Credit Course and Open to the Public

Once again Three Rivers Community College has opened to the public an Environmental Issues Seminars class being offered through the college’s Environmental Engineering Technology program. The class meets once a week, and will be taught entirely by guest lecturers, speaking on a wide range of locally relevant environmental topics (the complete list will be available in soon).

Members of the community are invited to show up for any session(s) that interests them. No advance reservations are necessary. The class meets Tuesday evenings from 6 - 7:45pm at the Thames Valley Campus, Room 102. For additional information, please contact Program Coordinator Diba Khan-Bureau at 885-2383, or by e-mail dkhan-bureau@trcc.commnet.edu.

The Environmental Issues Seminars class is part of the Environmental Health and Safety certificate and the Environmental Engineering Technology AS programs at Three Rivers, and can be taken for credit through the program. However, once program coordinator Diba Khan-Bureau got to work on securing speakers for the class, she knew she had put together an extremely knowledgeable cadre of local environmental experts. “I felt it was important to open it up to the public to attend whatever sessions might be of interest,” said Diba recently. “Everyone needs to know something about the environment that they live in.”

GUEST SPEAKERS:

1.   Jan 29th – William M. Leahy, Assoc. Exec. Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy, Eastern Connecticut State University - Energy Costs in CT - How We Can Develop More Sustainable Energy Economy

2.   Feb. 5th - Ralph Lewis, UConn Marine Sciences Dept., Retired CT State Geologist - Connecticut’s Geology

3.   Feb. 12th - Hank Gruner, Vice President of Science Center of CT. & Biodiversity Coordinator, CT Programs, Wildlife Conservation Society – Construction Design Challenges to Maintain Biodiversity

4.    Feb 19th - Steve Tessitore, CT Department of Environmental Protection - The Regulation of Inland Wetlands and Watercourses in Connecticut

5.    Feb 26th - Denise Savageau, Conservation Director Town of Greenwich – Agricultural Literacy:  The Need for Understanding Food Supply Issues

6.    March 4th – David Bingham, President Salem Land Trust – The Importance of Stewardship

7.   March 11th – Michael Beauchene,  CT. Department of Environmental Protection –        Rapid Bioassessment, Benthic Macro Invertebrates Survey

March 18 - SPRING BREAK

8.    March 25th - Maggie Jones, Botanist and Landscape Ecologist– Roles of Birds in the Eastern Forest Landscape

9.    April 1st  - Brian Murphy, CT. Department of Environmental Protection -  "How to Restore Streams Utilizing a Natural Channel Design Approach"

10.  April 8th - Steve Gephard, DEP Inland Fisheries Division–  Diadromous Fisheries Program

11.  April 15th – Diana Urban, Stonington State Representative - Environment and Politics

12.  April 22nd - Jason Vokoun, Professor of Fisheries, UConn - Declining Trends in Participation of Fishing and Hunting: Are we Heading into an Environmental Conservation Funding Crisis?

13.  April 29th –  Adam Ney, CBIA - Corporate Sustainability Operating in the Growing Green Economy, Is CT’s Businesses Enhancing their Commitment to Environmental Stewardship, Social Responsibility, Workforce Development and ROI.

14.  May 6th  -  Judy Preston, Tidewater Institute– The Connecticut River Estuary

15.  May 13th –  David Stokes, CT Dept of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Waste Management – Hazardous Waste Management and Enforcement

For more information on the Environmental Health and Safety certificate program, or the Environmental Engineering Technology associate’s degree program at Three Rivers Community College, please visit: http://www.trcc.commnet.edu/Prog_Study/Eng_Tech/Eng_Tech_Prog_Study.htm

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