New York Sea Grant and the state Department of Environmental Conservation have selected Northern Forest Canoe Trail, Inc. as one of eight recipients of funding through the New York Great Lakes Basin Small Grants Program.

Northern Forest Canoe Trail, Inc. will receive $50,000 for a project focused on enhancing the capacity of shoreline associations in the Raquette River headwaters region for the management of Long Lake, Raquette Lake and Blue Mountain Lake. The project is designed to improve community engagement and strategic planning to benefit local communities and surrounding areas as part of the headwaters’ sub-watershed of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

“New York State is committed to advancing resiliency, water quality protection and sustainable land use in the Great Lakes watershed by investing in projects that make valuable contributions to our environmental goals,” DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said in a statement.

“The Great Lakes Basin Small Grants Program empowers shoreline and watershed stakeholders to take an active role in conserving, protecting and enhancing their unique environmental and ecological resources in keeping with New York’s Great Lakes Action Agenda,” New York Sea Grant Associate Director Katherine Bunting-Howarth said in a statement.

The projects selected for funding advance the New York Great Lakes Action Agenda goals to apply an ecosystem-based approach to enhance community resiliency and environmental integrity, and are identified in locally-supported community plans pertaining to water quality, natural resources or sustainable land use.

New York Sea Grant administers the New York Great Lakes Basin Small Grants Program in partnership with DEC in support of projects that address the diverse environmental needs of waterfront communities in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River region. Past projects have included adding ADA-compliant canoe and kayak accessibility, youth environmental education, restoration of fish passageways and creating living shoreline habitat.

Joining Northern Forest Canoe Trail, Inc. for the most recent New York Great Lakes Basin small grant awards are Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County, the Finger Lakes Institute at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, the city of Ithaca, the village of Sodus Point, the town of Evans, Erie County and Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper.

The New York Great Lakes Basin Small Grants Program is funded by the New York State Environmental Protection Fund. To date, more than $1.4 million has been awarded for projects across New York’s Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River region.