A 2019 NYGLB Small Grant funded installation of a handicapped-accessible non-motorized boat launch on Great Sodus Bay. At right, Neighborhood Association of Sodus Point President Kathy Madison tries the new ramp. Credit: Maxine Appleby, Wayne County SWCD

New York Great Lakes Basin Small Grants encourage community- and stakeholder-driven ecosystem-based management applications

Contact:

Dave White, NYSG Coastal Recreation and Tourism Specialist, E: dgw9@cornell.edu, P: 315-312-3042

Oswego, NY, March 2, 2020 - Since its inception in 2015, the New York Great Lakes Basin Small Grants program has awarded more than $1 million to projects addressing needs and issues in NY’s Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River region and on several inland lakes within the Great Lakes watershed.

In 2019, $200,155 was awarded across the following nine projects to advance community, ecological and economic resiliency and the goals of the Great Lakes Action Agenda:

• Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District,  $20,300: Aquatic Organism Passage Assessment. Identifies culverts in Chateaugay-English Watershed in most need of repair and impeding aquatic organism passage, causing infrastructure failure & erosion.
 
• Genesee/Finger Lakes Regional Planning Council, $24,998: Advancing Resiliency through Housing Assistance in the Genesee-Finger Lakes Region. Increases municipality, community development corporations and local organizations’ awareness re: need to implement measures to reduce flood risk for vulnerable properties. 

• Center for Environmental Initiatives, $24,584: Canoe/Kayak Access Map for Genesee River Basin. Increases non-motorized boat access, raises public ecological awareness by updating the Genesee River Blueway Map,  and prepares strategic plan to develop additional river access sites.

• Product Stewardship Institute, $24,992: Promoting Smart Food Service Ware Choices among Restaurants, Customers & Tourists in Buffalo Niagara Area (Lake Erie/Niagara Falls). Reduces plastic-source aquatic pollution through stewardship and educational initiatives/messaging; with Visit Buffalo Niagara and City of Buffalo.

• Atlantic States Legal Foundation, $24,964: Community-Driven Restoration of Wolcott Creek Watershed. Assists restoration of Wolcott Creek, engages the community to develop ecosystem-based implementation action plan for the Village of Wolcott.

• St Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce, $24,999: Lake St. Lawrence Tourism Destination Master Planning. Creates inter-municipal plan to enhance/secure funding for eco-tourism/recreation opportunities and economic growth.

• Ontario County Soil & Water Conservation District, $5,320: Sandy Bottom Park Shoreline Stabilization Engineering and Design Study. Assesses feasibility of using nature-based practices to mitigate shoreline erosion at a popular Honeoye Lake community park/beach.

• Environmental Finance Center at Syracuse University, $24,999: From Planning to Implementation: Building Capacity in the Town of Sandy Creek. Assists local government in developing and implementing ecosystem-based management within existing plans; develops planning strategy re: North and South Sandy Ponds’ watersheds.

• Village of Sodus Point, $24,999: Developing South Ontario Street Canoe/Kayak Launch as Eco-Tourism Destination for Great Sodus Bay. Enhances waterfront access with handicapped-accessible non-motorized boat launch & gateway to paddling trail, green infrastructure elements with Neighborhood Association of Sodus Point and Save Our Sodus.

For More Information: www.nyseagrant.org/glsmallgrants.


The Sea Grant Focus Area for this project is Resilient New York Communities and Economies. 


Project Partners:  

• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
• NYS Environmental Protection Fund Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Program (funding)


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, 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. Our program also produces an occasional e-newsletter,"NOAA Sea Grant's Social Media Review," via its blog, www.nyseagrant.org/blog.