Before (left) and after (right) shoreline restoration work completed by Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper (BNW) at Ellicott Island Park. Credit: BNW
Contact:
Megan Kocher, NYSG Great Lakes Outreach Coordinator, E: mk2236@cornell.edu, P: (716) 270-2490
Small grants projects converted eight local community plans into action, utilizing ecosystem-based management principles to advance NY’s Great Lakes Action Agenda
Buffalo, NY, May 27, 2025 - Communities across New York’s Great Lakes region invest significant time and resources into developing plans, such as Watershed Management Plans and Local Waterfront Revitalization Plans, which outline critical strategies for environmental protection and sustainable development. The transition from planning to implementation, however, often stalls due to funding and resource gaps.
The New York Great Lakes Basin (NYGLB) Small Grants Program, administered by New York Sea Grant (NYSG), bridges these gaps by empowering communities to implement actions specifically identified within their community-based plans, addressing local priorities while supporting the goals of the Great Lakes Action Agenda. In 2023, the NYGLB Small Grants Program prioritized projects that directly advanced locally supported plans and aligned with ecosystem-based management principles that integrate environmental, social, and economic considerations. NYSG facilitated funding to eight projects, totaling $388,289 in NYGLB small grants. The initiatives tackled issues ranging from sediment transport, watershed regulation review, and shoreline resilience to community education about water quality, and digital outreach. Grantees included municipalities, environmental organizations, and academic institutions, locally working collaboratively to translate planning into impactful action.
By fall 2024, all eight projects were successfully completed, delivering tangible benefits to local ecosystems, economies, and communities from Lake Erie and western New York to the Lake Ontario and Finger Lakes regions and the watershed of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Project outcomes included restored habitats, improved water quality and community resilience, and strengthened community partnerships. These efforts illustrate the value of connecting local priorities with broader state-level goals, helping communities to take meaningful steps toward addressing shared environmental challenges.
For more information about these projects and previous funding rounds, visit nyseagrant.org/glsmallgrants.
Project Partners/Funders:
• New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
• Funding: New York State Environmental Protection Fund under the authority of the New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Act
More Info: New York Sea Grant
Established in 1966, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s National Sea Grant College Program promotes the informed stewardship of coastal resources in 34 joint federal/state university-based programs in every U.S. coastal state (marine and Great Lakes) and Puerto Rico. The Sea Grant model has also inspired similar projects in the Pacific region, Korea and Indonesia.
Since 1971, New York Sea Grant (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.
NYSG historically leverages on average a 3 to 6-fold return on each invested federal dollar, annually. We benefit from this, as these resources are invested in Sea Grant staff and their work in communities right here in New York.
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.
New York Sea Grant, one of the largest of the state Sea Grant programs, is a cooperative program of the State University of New York (SUNY) and Cornell University. 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, follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and YouTube). NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which it publishes 2-3 times a year.