“This program provides River Network Organizational Members with free supplies and guidance to design and host successful rain barrel making workshops in your communities. Rain barrel making workshops are a great way to reach people in your area, educate them about water pollution and conservation, and enable them to save water and energy at their homes, schools, and other buildings.

We hope you will participate by hosting a workshop or participating in a workshop, and spreading the word. We are excited to see how many rain barrels the network can all get installed over the next year and how many people take steps to reduce their water footprints!” (the river network)

Information from the River Network: must be a member of the River Network*

FOR INTERESTED ORGANIZATIONS
Thanks to generous support from The Coca-Cola Foundation North America, each River Network member group can get at least 20 FREE RainRecycle Do-It-Yourself Rain Barrel Kits (valued at $29.95 each) to use at a rain barrel workshop between now and June 2017. Most groups can also access free used syrup barrels from their local Coca-Cola plant to convert into rain barrels. Participating groups that engage low-income and under-served communities through their workshops can get up to 20 additional free rain barrel kits, for a total of 40 kits.

FOR INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS
River Network will be promoting the National Rain Barrel program and all registered workshops through our Reduce Your Water Footprint webpage, social media, and online ads. Keep an eye out for opportunities to get involved by volunteering or participating in upcoming workshops near you!

With questions please contact: asrinivasan@rivernetwork.org

All information for this event and post from www.rivernetwork.org

“Gather with other regional business leaders, from organizations both large and small, to share environmental challenges and successes, learn more about environmental sustainability goals, identify needs, develop sustainable solutions that support the protection of local rivers and streams, and learn more about the Businesses for the Bay membership association. Engage with business, non-profit, and government leaders and network with Businesses for the Bay Members, Sponsors, and Partners.”

• August 17, 2016
• Registration and Networking 10:00am
• Program starts at 10:30am
• Lunch included with registration
• Keynote Speaker is Dr. Jorge Ribas, President & CEO of the Mid-Atlantic Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Held at Luck Companies Learning Center: 515 Stone Mill Drive, Manakin-Sabot, Virginia 23103
• More information at businesses.allianceforthebay.org

all information from businesses.allianceforthebay.org 

“River Rally is the national conference to get inspired, learn more from experts and peers, and celebrate achievements related to our nation’s waters. Next year’s event will be held on May 8-11, 2017 in fabulous Grand Rapids, MI. Grand Rapids is special place for River Rally. Join us to learn from a community that is hard at work implementing a restoration plan that will revitalize the city and restore the namesake rapids and river in its urban core. Mark your calendars now!” (rivernetwork.org)

The call for workshop proposals for River Rally 2017 is now open!

What ideas, experience, or advice do you have for your fellow water advocates?

We invite you to join us for River Rally 2017 and share your practical knowledge with hundreds of river and watershed protection enthusiasts and concerned citizens from across the country and beyond related to these themes:

• Tackling the Drinking Water Crisis and Water Affordability
• Restoring Urban Rivers and Achieving Climate Resiliency
• Connecting Communities to Rivers and Recreation
• Protecting and Restoring Flows
• Growing Organizational Momentum and Impact

Learn more about these themes and submit your workshop proposal via our website by Friday, October 7, 2016.

all information for this post and this event from the River Network. River Rally photo from the River Network.

Connect, Discover and Expand Citizen Science:  What will it take to realize the potential of citizens’ contributions to the science underlying environmental and human health?

CLICK TO REGISTER HERE by June 17, 2016

We still have space for registration. Please feel free to share with others who might be interested.

• What: Active, participant-driven conversation on Citizen Science, and Featured speaker, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.
• When: June 24, 2016
  • Registration and coffee at 8:30am
  • Forum 9:30am- 4pm
• Where:  Tufts University- 574 Boston Avenue (4^th floor) Medford, MA

Use public transportation with MBTA Trip planner or Parking is available at Dowling Parking Garage ($8-) 419 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA

If you need a place to stay, Tufts has a list of hotels nearby here:  http://admissions.tufts.edu/visit/accommodations/. Additionally, AC Hotels, Marriott located at 95 Station Landing in Medford, provides a shuttle to Tufts.

Join Us for an Open Space Meeting

In the spirit of Citizen Science, this gathering will use the highly-participatory Open Space meeting format to host multiple conversations. The format is designed to allow participants to frame and convene the discussions they want to have. This dynamic approach will offer those in attendance the chance to share their knowledge, experience, questions, and enthusiasm for citizen-based science. We’ll extract our favorite part of conferences – the hallway meet ups, coffee chats, and informal conversations with interesting colleagues—and create the experience for the whole day.       

What does this mean for me as a conference participant? 

We invite you to identify the questions, ideas and stories that keep you up at night. Come prepared to lead and/or participate in conversations about citizen science that will make a difference. Although we are focusing more on conversations than presentations, you have a 100% guarantee that you can convene a session on a citizen science-related topic that you are curious about and want to discuss with others. You can do this by yourself or with colleagues.  

Questions to help you brainstorm:

• What have we learned from our citizen science efforts to date? 
• What are the areas of need and opportunity?   
• What is needed to initiate or take projects to the next level? 
• What are the barriers to the use of citizen science data?
• What challenges do we face and how can we address them? 
• What questions, large and small, are on your mind as you practice or contemplate the use of citizen science?

Event Sponsors: U.S. EPA Region 1, NEWIPCC, NESCAUM, NEWMOA and Tufts University

If you have any questions or any special requests, please contact Emily Bender at 617-918-1037 orbender.emily@epa.gov

All information for this event from EPA

Take a look at this announcement from the EPA about the EJSCREEN Webinar-

After a year of public engagement and collecting feedback from stakeholders, EPA is announcing the release of the latest version of EJSCREEN, the agency’s environmental justice screening and mapping tool. The new EJSCREEN has an abundance of new features – all of which were requested by the public – including (to list a few):

• The inclusion of the National Air Toxic Assessment environmental indicators for cancer risk, respiratory, and diesel PM
• Scalable maps, that summarize data at the Census block group, tract, or county-level
• The ability to save sessions and print maps from the home screen
• A feature that allows you to look at two maps, side-by-side
• The addition of Puerto Rico

The EPA will be hosting three webinars to engage with EJ stakeholders on questions about the new data and design of EJSCREEN as well as a discussion of how EJSCREEN is being used. These webinars will include a basic overview of the tool, and will not be technical in nature. Please register for the event via the EventBrite page.

EJSCREEN webinar dates:

• June 28(2 pm EST)
• June 30(4 pm EST)
• July 11(3 pm EST)

Register at:  https://2016-ejscreen-rollout.eventbrite.com

all information for this post from the EPA

Register for the Urban Waters National Training Workshop hosted by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency on July 26-28, 2016 at the Sheraton Pentagon City in Arlington, VA.

The workshop will serve as a forum for Urban Waters Federal Partnership members and communities. The Urban Waters Federal Partnership (UWFP) is an innovative union of fourteen agencies working to provide integrated support to communities ? particularly underserved and economically distressed communities ? as they transform their local urban waters into treasured centerpieces for community revitalization.

This year, registration for this workshop is free and open to all! Space is limited and your participation is important to us, so please register now. Please also share this event invitation broadly to those in your network. You can help ensure vibrant conversation by inviting those working on natural resource conservation, environment, public health, community revitalization, economic development, and all those sectors that contribute to our shared mission.

This workshop aims to help advance the following goals:

1. Strong Urban Waters Movement: Inspire and strengthen the urban waters movement to build and sustain robust effective partnerships across the country;
2. Authentic Community Engagement: Strengthen our skills in working together with underserved communities to address community-based priorities and environmental justice challenges; and
3. Partnerships on the Ground: Connect, share, and learn with other innovators about how to convene, engage, and succeed in our partnership work.

Additional information about this workshop, together with details about registration, draft agenda, and venue can be found by clicking the Attend Event button contained within this invitation.

A hotel room block is available at the Sheraton Pentagon City, and information is included on the registration website. While registration is open, space is limited so please register at the link above by July 13, 2016. Please reserve your hotel room by June 30, 2016.

Thanks EPA for sharing! All information is from the EPA