Above, oyster castles that are part of a LISS Futures Fund NYC Parks tidal wetlands restoration project at Alley Pond Park, Douglaston/Queens, NY, are an example of the SRC work that involves educating and encouraging nature-based solutions to address climate change impacts. Credit: Sarah Schaefer-Brown/NYSG

Contacts:

Elizabeth Hornstein, Sustainable and Resilient Communities Specialist, Suffolk County, E: eeh78@cornell.edu

Sarah Schaefer-Brown, Sustainable and Resilient Communities Specialist, Nassau County, E: scs292@cornell.edu

Sara Powell, Sustainable and Resilient Communities Specialist, Westchester County, E: slp285@cornell.edu

New York Sea Grant has added new extension specialists to the collaborative regional framework that is strengthening the environmental, social, and economic well-being of Long Island Sound communities.

New York, NY, August 10, 2022 - The Long Island Sound Study (LISS), a United States Environmental Protection Agency-funded program created to protect and restore Long Island Sound, identified Sustainable and Resilient Communities (SRC) as one of four themes in its Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. The goal is to support vibrant, informed, and engaged communities that use, appreciate, and help protect the Sound by fostering the ability of social and ecological systems within the Sound community to adapt and recover from the effects of climate change.

Guided by a LISS SRC workgroup and a five-year work plan, in the Fall of 2021 New York Sea Grant (NYSG) hired three SRC extension professionals: Sara Powell, based with Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) of Westchester County; Sarah Schaefer-Brown based with CCE of Nassau County; and Elizabeth Hornstein, based at SUNY Stony Brook. These new staff are working with two Connecticut Sea Grant extension professionals to provide support, training, and tools for the entire Sound coastal community.

The work of the SRC team will result in a more-coordinated regional response to climate change impacts, better-trained and more-informed community decisionmakers, and an engaged community acting as stewards of the watershed resources. The new NYSG SRC team is developing the foundation for the coordinated effort that will advance the sustainability and resiliency of communities along the Long Island Sound coast. Learn more at: longislandsoundstudy.net.

Project Partners:

• Funding: Long Island Sound Study, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Connecticut Sea Grant

“EPA is committed to help Long Island Sound communities anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to the impacts of climate change. The new Long Island Sound Study partnership with New York Sea Grant will help communities protect the environment, property, and people.” — Mark Tedesco, Director, Environmental Protection Agency Long Island Sound Office


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, 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.