The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has announced that Pennsylvania Sea Grant has been promoted to Institutional Sea Grant Program status.
Pennsylvania Sea Grant is administered by Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, and staffs two locations—a Lake Erie office in the Tom Ridge Environmental Center at Presque Isle State Park in Erie, Pa., and a Delaware Estuary office in Chester, Pa. Institutional status designation gives Pennsylvania Sea Grant primary responsibility for statewide oversight of long-term investments consistent with NOAA's national Sea Grant goal of environmental stewardship and responsible resource use.
NOAA established Pennsylvania Sea Grant at Penn State Behrend in 1998. "The college began pursuing a Sea Grant project in the mid-1990s because with the exception of Pennsylvania, every state with an ocean or Great Lakes coastline had a Sea Grant program in place and was receiving federal funding to support their coastal environmental and economic sustainability efforts," said Robert W. Light, Pennsylvania Sea Grant director and senior associate dean at Penn State Behrend. "Promotion to institutional status recognizes Pennsylvania Sea Grant's successes over the past decade and brings with it additional funding that will allow us to expand research and outreach services to include the Susquehanna River watershed.”
Pennsylvania Sea Grant's mission is to promote the ecological and economic sustainability of Pennsylvania's coastal resources through science-based research, education and extension. Over the past decade, this has included:
• Launching Environmental Rediscoveries, a hands-on science program that has taken more than 6,500 middle school students on day sails aboard a 42-ft Friendship sloop. Students sail the boat, test water quality and search for aquatic plants and animals.
• Raising more than $6.2 million to help preserve 912 acres of important coastal land, including 1.3 miles of Lake Erie shoreline and 2.9 miles of stream.
• Promoting Seaway Trail and National Scenic Byway designation for Pennsylvania state Rte. 5 and state Rte. 20, resulting in $640,752 in federal economic development funding.
• Implementing a three-year Lake Erie Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) program for local land-use officials. NEMO addresses the relationship between land use and coastal resource protection; to date, staff has reached more than 230 students and 580 municipal officials, agency representatives and consultants.
• Developing and delivering workshops to help landscape architects, surveyors, engineers, real estate agents and others improve soil erosion control practices.
