As NYSG’s new Great Lakes Coastal Community Development Specialist, Mary Penney is currently undertaking a community-driven needs assessment survey that will help local decision makers identify priority issues and will work with community leaders to respond to the issues of the Eastern Lake Ontario region and its tributaries, including the Salmon River. Her services are especially needed by the more rural towns and villages that do not already have the type of resources that Sea Grant can provide to facilitate planning and decision making.

Penney will assist local leaders interested in land use planning, watershed protection, science-based sustainable renewable energy discussions, and managing climate change impacts. Penney will also be developing local volunteerism opportunities and will supervise a team of coastal natural resource educators.

Penney has been an educator with New York Sea Grant since 2006. She can be reached at New York Sea Grant, SUNY Oswego, 315-312-3042.

— Kara Lynn Dunn