New York Sea Grant provided the property owner of this area in Chatauqua County with shoreline best management practices. Credit: NYSG/R. Widrig

Contact:

Roy Widrig, NYSG Great Lakes Coastal Processes and Hazards Specialist, E: rlw294@cornell.edu, P: (315) 234-1916

New York Sea Grant coastal processes and hazards specialists provide shoreline property owners and managers with information for managing erosion and flooding

Oswego, NY, March 25, 2024 - Shorelines in New York’s Great Lakes region are dynamic features eroding or changing greatly over long periods of time or quickly during storm events, intensified by regional changes in climate. Nor’easter and seiche events are significant drivers of these shoreline changes.

In 2020, New York Sea Grant (NYSG) introduced Virtual Site Visits, an intuitive online GIS-based survey tool that allows shoreline residents to report shoreline erosion and request assistance. In 2023, 47 shoreline consultations were completed by NYSG across Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and other water bodies in New York’s Great Lakes Basin. These consultations were carried out through phone calls, email messages and multiple in-person site visits. NYSG extends shoreline expertise and best practices for managing shorelines through these individual and group consultations. Residents learn about coastal processes, managing shorelines based on local geology and weather conditions, and are provided outreach material for managing shoreline erosion and flooding.

The 47 shoreline consultations were completed in nearly every shoreline community along NY’s Great Lakes. Behavior changes, expected throughout, were confirmed in Chautauqua County on Lake Erie, where residents constructed shoreline drainage improvements. Erosion was slowed along 300 feet of Lake Erie shoreline cliffs, protecting a delicate and prominent point extending out from the shore.

Project Partner:

• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation


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, Rochester Institute of Technology, SUNY Oswego, the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark, and in Watertown. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County on Long Island, in Queens, at Brooklyn College, with Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC, in Bronx, with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County in Kingston, and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County in Elmsford.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has Facebook, Twitter/X, 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.