In 2003, NOAA led a partnership that restored a 0.8-acre salt marsh in Bar Beach Lagoon, North Hempstead, New York, as part of a natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) settlement addressing natural resource injury damages due to release of contaminants into Hempstead Harbor. 

Lake Ontario’s Braddock Bay has lost 123 acres of emergent wetland. The Braddock Bay Ecosystem Restoration Project was created to save and reestablish 340 acres of this coastal wetland area. This project will increase habitat for fish and wildlife, reduce erosion, manage invasive species, and increase bay-area property values. 

Brooklyn Bridge Park boasts 2 kilometers of shoreline and 14 hectares of open space that serves thousands of visitors per day. This industrial shoreline has lost natural intertidal habitats and biodiversity. The park constructed two ECO-concrete projects to enhance biodiversity:  concrete tide pools and repairing aging piles with eco-friendly substrate to recruit invertebrates. 

The Harbor Brook CSO 018 Constructed Wetlands Pilot Project serves the dual purposes of treating overflows from CSO 018, currently discharged into Harbor Brook, while also acting as a demonstration project to test the effectiveness of three types of constructed wetland treatment systems (floating wetland island, vertical down flow, and surface water treatment wetlands).

Big Egg Marsh in Jamaica Bay, NY was experiencing subsidence, erosion, plant mortality, isolation, and other threats related to sea-level rise. This marsh, adjacent to Broad Channel village, was chosen for a thin-layer placement restoration project to increase marsh elevation and vegetation. The site was restored to a silty-organic saltmarsh. 

New York City is taking steps to mitigate current heat conditions and improve resiliency to future heat conditions. The city is increasing the use of cooling centers and promoting green infrastructure projects like urban foresting and green roofs to mitigate the urban heat island effect.  

The northern barrier bar in North Sandy Pond was experiencing flooding and erosion, and was at risk of a full breach. This project placed local sand in strategic locations to utilize Lake Ontario’s longshore currents to replenish eroded sections of the beach. Volunteers also planted native beach grasses to further stabilize the shoreline. 

Sodus Point Beach on Lake Ontario experienced significant flooding in 2017 and 2019, causing over $3 million in damages to the beachfront community. To restore the beach, this project created a sand-collection feature using a dune, sand fencing, and 30,000 native dune-grass plants to capture wind-borne sands and keep the sand on the beach.  

Spice Creek Wildlife Management Area, along the Upper Niagara River, was experiencing erosion and wetland loss. This project introduced a segmented stone breakwater and large engineered wood structure to reverse this loss and promote habitat restoration. These structures reduce erosion and mitigate wave energy, allowing for sediment deposition and wetland creation.  

Unity Island, in the Upper Niagara River, lost coastal wetland habitat due to both industrial development and the construction of docks, marinas, and water control structures. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used 43,000 cubic meters of dredged sediment to create 2 hectares of emergent and submerged wetland habitat.