Rip-rap being installed along an eroding bluff in Wayne County, NY. Credit: Roy Widrig/NYSG

New York Sea Grant Coastal Processes and Hazards Specialist Can Help

Contact: 

Roy Widrig, Great Lakes Coastal Processes and Hazards Specialist, E: rlw294@cornell.edu, P: 315-312-3042

Kara Lynn Dunn, NYSG's Freelance Great Lakes Publicist, E: karalynn@gisco.net, P: (315) 465-7578

Oswego, NY, April 10, 2024 - Landowners along New York's Great Lakes shoreline with erosion or damage caused by flooding, storm surge, water pooling, or wind-wave action can have their property evaluated without cost by New York Sea Grant Extension. 

The evaluation is offered both virtually and in-person. The NY Sea Grant Virtual Site Visit portal is online at www.nyseagrant.org/glcoastalvirtualsitevisit. For more information, contact New York Sea Grant at 315-312-3042, rlw294@cornell.edu.

New York Sea Grant's virtual site visit portal for Great Lakes shoreline property evaluation allows landowners to enter a description of their problem and locate the property on a map. New York Sea Grant Coastal Processes and Hazards Specialist Roy Widrig evaluates the options for addressing the issue and contacts the property owner. If needed, an in-person visit is scheduled.

Widrig applies his expertise to identifying nature-based or structural ways to address the erosion of shoreline and waterfront habitats as well as any need to restore the structural integrity of existing coastal structures. He can provide information on state and local shoreline project permitting requirements.

Widrig is the author of informational guides, including Working with Nature: A Guide to Native Plants for New York's Great Lakes Shorelines, and Erosion Management for New York's Great Lakes Shorelines, and is co-author of Erosion and Recession of New York's Coastal Bluffs. The bluffs guide includes an insert for tracking erosion on a property and is freely downloadable at www.nyseagrant.org/theblufflet. 

Funding for this work comes in part from the New York State Environmental Protection Fund and Article 14 of Environmental Conservation Law.


Erosion adjacent to shoreline rip-rap in Oswego County, NY; New York Sea Grant helped the property owner identify where to prioritize remediation efforts and what to expect from future waterfront conditions. Credit: Roy Widrig/NYSG


Bluff erosion along Lake Erie undermined a staircase and threatened a season campground in Chautauqua County. New York Sea Grant helped the business identify specific erosion processes and shoreline remediation practices recommended based on local geology. Credit: Roy Widrig/NYSG


Storm events along Lake Ontario can cause erosion and destabilization of preconstructed shoreline erosion management structures, leading to additional inland erosion. Credit: Roy Widrig/NYSG


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 and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County on 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.