Help is available to New York’s Great Lakes property owners seeing damage to their shoreline washing away with the waves, wind, freeze-thaw, storm surge or flooding. 

New York Sea Grant (NYSG) Coastal Processes and Hazards Specialists Roy L. Widrig and Kathleen M. Fallon, Ph.D., are available for virtual and in-person assistance.  Widrig helps property owners in New York’s Great Lakes region. Fallon assists those on Long Island. They apply their expertise to identify nature-based or structural ways to mitigate the erosion that impacts shoreline habitat, and encroaches on or affects the structural integrity of coastal properties.

The NYSG specialists also provide information on various state and local shoreline project permitting requirements.  Great Lakes regional property assessment options are accessed online via https://arcg.is/u9ySr or contact Widrig at 315-312-3042, rlw294@cornell.edu. Long Island property owners can reach Fallon at 631-632-8730, kmf228@cornell.edu. 

 New York Sea Grant has additional guides on shoreline erosion mitigation and adaptation practices, planting native plant species that absorb and filter storm water and stabilize sand dunes, bio-engineering measures, and installing breakwalls and other hard structures.