NYSG shoreline site visit location in Westfield, NY, along Lake Erie. Credit: Roy Widrig/NYSG
Contact:
Roy Widrig, Great Lakes Coastal Processes and Hazards Specialist, E: rlw294@cornell.edu, P: (315) 312-3042
NYSG provides New York’s freshwater and marine shoreline stakeholders with expertise on natural and nature-based shoreline management methods
Oswego, NY, March 23, 2023 - The residents of New York State’s Great Lakes and connecting river shorelines have lived in a period of rapid shoreline erosion, historical flooding, and resulting shoreline changes between 2017 and 2020. Few resources exist for coastal residents to remain resilient to shoreline issues.
Throughout 2022, New York Sea Grant (NYSG) provided consultation on shoreline erosion and flooding management to New York residents, utilizing both Virtual Site Visits (an online reporting format) and in-person site evaluations. NYSG worked with 29 resident properties directly, located on Lake Ontario (10), Lake Erie (13), Oneida Lake (1), Clear Creek (1), Irondequoit Bay (1), Cattaraugus Creek (1) and the Oswego River (2), while discussing causes and abatement of shoreline erosion throughout the region.
Additionally, 30 residents, town officials, and agency staff attended three-hour workshops. Attendees received multiple publications from NYSG and partner agencies on shoreline management and funding opportunities, and were able to converse one-on-one with NYSG and partner agency staff.
Shoreline residents or property managers were supplied educational materials, advice and tools in order to make more science-based decisions on managing shoreline erosion and flooding. Residents in need of shoreline work were supplied with NYSG’s shoreline contractors list.
In response to New York’s shoreline residents struggling for science-based information on shoreline erosion processes and the need for well-vetted resources regarding shoreline contractors, NYSG provided online and in-person consultations in 2022 to provide this information.
Partners:
• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
• New York State Department of State
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Funding: New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC)
NYS DEC presentation slide during NYSG-organized shoreline project permitting workshop. Credit: NYS DEC
More Info: New York Sea Grant
New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University
and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based
programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s
National Sea Grant College Program.
Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated
research, education and extension services promoting coastal community
economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness
and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.
Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists
and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based
information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries,
federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers,
educators, the media and the interested public.
The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY
Buffalo, SUNY Oswego and the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office
in Newark. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook
University in Long Island, Brooklyn College and Cornell Cooperative
Extension in NYC and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.
For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly.
