SHORE: Supporting Hubs for Outreach and Resilience Exchange will launch in Oswego, Hamburg, and Greece, New York
Contacts
• Mary Austerman, New York Sea Grant Great Lakes Coastal Community Development Specialist, P: 315-234-2260, E: mp357@cornell.edu
• Lauren Darcy, New York Sea Grant Great Lakes Coastal Resilience Specialist, P: 315-849-3962, E: led22@cornell.edu
• Kara Lynn Dunn, New York Sea Grant's Great Lakes Publicist, P: 315-465-7578, E: karalynn@gisco.net
Oswego, NY, September 8, 2026 - New York Sea Grant has announced the launch of SHORE: a local government network developed to provide practical and technical support to Great Lakes municipalities facing flooding, shoreline change, and water resource challenges. New York Sea Grant will hold three day-long regional SHORE launch events:
• October 20, 2026, 10 am - 3 pm, Oswego, NY — REGISTER
• October 28, 2026, 10 am - 3 pm, Hamburg, NY — REGISTER
• November 4, 2026, 10 am - 3 pm, Greece, NY — REGISTER
For registration assistance, contact New York Sea Grant at 315-312-3042.
“Local leaders shouldn’t have to start from scratch every time a coastal challenge arises. SHORE will help communities tap into the experience, expertise, and resources that already exist across New York’s Great Lakes region,” said New York Sea Grant Coastal Community Development Specialist Mary Austerman.
The SHORE launch events will:
• Introduce the network and explore how connections among communities, agencies, and resource providers can help local governments navigate complex coastal issues and achieve resilience goals
• Speakers will highlight timely state and regional initiatives and emerging issues relevant to Great Lakes local governments
• “Lightning talks” will provide communities and partners an opportunity to share projects, successes, lessons learned, innovative approaches, and challenges they are working to address
• Facilitated discussions will build on these conversations, allowing participants to exchange experiences, perspectives, and resources and to make connection that can support their work beyond the event.
New York Sea Grant provides this assistance with partial support from the New York State Environmental Protection Fund, in partnership with the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Great Lakes Program.
More Info: New York Sea Grant
New York Sea Grant (NYSG) is a university-based, statewide Federal-State collaboration between the State University of New York (SUNY), Cornell University, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It is one of 34 university-based programs that connects research, extension, and education with the needs of coastal communities, environments, and economies through NOAA.
Since 1971, NYSG has supported science-based solutions for a wide range of water-related challenges and opportunities across the state. Through NYSG’s efforts, university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science and technical information to educational institutions, businesses, agencies, and industries; federal, state and local governments; the media; and the interested public. The program is administratively based at Stony Brook University (SBU) and Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS).
NYSG historically leverages on average a 5.5-fold return on each invested federal dollar, annually. The State benefits from this, as these resources are invested in Sea Grant staff and their work in communities right here in New York.
New York Sea Grant, one of the largest of the state Sea Grant programs, 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.
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.
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 quarterly.