Eddie Pacelli and Andrew Snell install a roadside sign in October 2016 near Sucker Brook in Owasco as part of the New York Sea Grant-funded Tributary Adoption and Identification Pilot Project. In addition to Owasco, locales in Niles and Fleming were also labeled with these new roadside signs, at the top of which are the names of one of three main tributaries that drivers, bikers and walkers may cross — Sucker, Van Ness and Dutch Hollow brooks. Credit: Gwendolyn Craig/TheCitizen

Contacts: 

DEC: Megan Gollwitzer | P: (716) 851-7201, E: Megan.Gollwitzer@dec.ny.gov

NY Sea Grant: David White | P: (315) 312-3042, E: dgw9@cornell.edu

Oswego, NY, May 9, 2022 - New York Sea Grant, in partnership with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), today announced $400,000 in grant funding now available for Great Lakes ecosystem-based management projects in support of New York's Great Lakes Action Agenda. Awards of up to $50,000 per project will be available from the New York Great Lakes Basin Small Grants Program at nyseagrant.org/glsmallgrants. 

"These grants provide key opportunities to bolster environmental progress and economic development by enhancing ecosystem restoration and advancing resiliency at a critical time for the Great Lakes," said DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos. "DEC looks forward to our continued partnership with New York Sea Grant to implement solutions for protecting the Great Lakes today and for future generations of New Yorkers."

"The Great Lakes region encompasses a unique ecosystem and represents a major economic engine for New York State," said New York Sea Grant Associate Director and Cornell University Cooperative Extension Assistant Director Katherine Bunting-Howarth, Ph.D., J.D. "New York Sea Grant is excited to coordinate this funding to help diverse stakeholders implement plans to protect their coastal environments and strengthen the resiliency, sustainability, and economic standing of their waterfront communities."

Proposed projects must address key water quality, natural resource, and resiliency priorities in New York's Great Lakes Action Agenda and should advance local priorities identified in existing community plans. Eligible projects may include planning, design, implementation, information management tool development, demonstration projects, and targeted educational outreach.

Not-for-profit organizations, county and local government or public agencies, municipalities, regional planning and environmental commissions, and educational institutions including, but not limited to, public and private K-12 schools, colleges, and universities, are eligible to apply.

Application instructions are available online at nyseagrant.org/glsmallgrants as well as via the "how to apply" webinar held on May 19th (see video below). Proposals must be submitted by 4:30 p.m. EST on July 1, 2022. For more information, contact New York Sea Grant at (315) 312-3042.



The New York Great Lakes Basin Small Grants Program is administered by New York Sea Grant in partnership with DEC, and is funded by the New York State Environmental Protection Fund (EPF). Among the many environmental victories in the 2022-23 State Budget, Governor Kathy Hochul succeeded in enacting an increase in the EPF from $300 million to $400 million, the highest-ever level of funding in the program's history. The EPF supports climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, improves agricultural resources to promote sustainable agriculture, protects our water sources, advances conservation efforts, and provides recreational opportunities for New Yorkers.

Examples of past New York Great Lakes Basin Small Grants projects can be found online at nyseagrant.org/glsmallgrants.

Eight currently funded projects are focused on engaging New York youth in environmental education and activities in their local watershed areas of the Great Lakes.


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, University at 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 and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County on Long Island; at Brooklyn College, with New York City Department of Environmental Protection in Queens and at Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC and Elmsford and Kingston in the Hudson Valley.

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