Beautiful weather was in abundant supply for “It’s My Estuary” Day event, which offered a bevy of beach activities and demonstration at Kaiser Park, Coney Island Brooklyn NY on May 14, 2016. Photos: Helen Cheng/ NYSG.
Brooklyn, NY, June 16, 2016 - Hand-on activities are an effective way to build stewardship in communities. So, New York Sea Grant was a willing participant for mid-May's "It's My Estuary" Day, a family-friendly day of service, learning and celebration along the Coney Island Creek in Kaiser Park. The event is an evolution of Partnerships for Parks’ "It’s My Park" series, which helps Coney Island communities learn about, value and care for it’s precious, vulnerable, estuary environment.
One of the educators at this all-day event was NYSG's Jamaica Bay Coastal Resilience Specialist Helen Cheng (pictured above), who is pictured above standing in front of her table display showcasing resources for resilience in New York City.
As pictured above, Cheng's mapping activity was an informal lesson on evacuation zones and resilience, and (as seen in inset photo) available resources from the NYC Office of Emergency Management in New York City (NYC OEM).
In 2013, NYC OEM revised the City's hurricane evacuation zones and initiated a “Know Your Zone” campaign with maps to help familiarize residents with these changes. These and other storm-resilent resources are featured in a recently-released National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-funded documentary short produced by Sea Grant programs in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. For more, see On YouTube: NOAA Sea Grant Coastal Storm Awareness Program Comes Ashore.
NYSG's Helen Cheng shared a table at "It's My Estuary" Day with Ph .D. Candidate of CUNY Brooklyn College Annesia Lamb (pictured above), who offered a display and activity on local algae species.
Cheng, who came to New York Sea Grant this past February, says of her Brooklyn College-based position, “Learning about the Nation’s top issues makes this an exciting time to be working on Jamaica Bay resilience, especially since the devastation caused by Superstorm Sandy.” For more, see NYSG Welcomes Helen Cheng as Jamaica Bay Coastal Resilience Specialist.
More Info: New York Sea Grant
New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University
and the State University of New York, is one of 33 university-based
programs under the National Sea Grant College Program (NSGCP) of the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NSGCP
engages this network of the nation’s top universities in conducting
scientific research, education, training and extension projects designed
to foster science-based decisions about the use and conservation of our
aquatic resources. Through its statewide network of integrated
services, NYSG has been promoting coastal vitality, environmental
sustainability, and citizen awareness about the State’s marine and Great
Lakes resources since 1971.
New York Sea Grant maintains Great Lakes offices at SUNY Buffalo, the
Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark and at SUNY Oswego.
In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University
and Stony Brook Manhattan, in the Hudson Valley through Cooperative
Extension in Kingston and at Brooklyn College.
For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube links. NYSG also offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/coastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published several times a year.
