New Shorefront Park Photo Snap Station Open

Patchogue has opened a new photo snap station at the living shoreline in Shorefront Park, adding a public camera point to the village’s waterfront this week. (longislandadvance.net) The Village of Patchogue said the station sits at the living shoreline in Shorefront Park and is open for anyone to use. The Long Island Advance reported the village unveiled it on Wednesday, April 22. (longislandadvance.net) The stand is not just a backdrop for family photos. Village officials described it as a citizen-science tool that lets visitors take a picture, scan a QR code, and upload the image to MyCoast.org so the shoreline can be tracked over time. (longislandadvance.net) A living shoreline uses plants, sand, rock, and wetlands in place of a hard wall to absorb wave energy and limit erosion. Patchogue’s project replaced a deteriorated 1,300-foot bulkhead along the Great South Bay with a nature-based edge built for flood resilience, habitat restoration, and water-quality gains. (dos.ny.gov) The state Department of State said in September 2023 that Shorefront Park’s overhaul cost $3 million and ranked among the largest living shoreline projects in New York. The work also added a walking trail, pedestrian bridges, and other park amenities. (dos.ny.gov) The Village of Patchogue says the shoreline project was built to improve flood protection while restoring marsh habitat at Little Creek and the bayfront. The village also describes the site as a public-access project, not just an erosion-control job, with new waterfront paths and viewing areas. (patchoguevillage.gov) That makes the new station a small add-on to a larger local experiment: asking residents and visitors to help document how a rebuilt shoreline changes season by season. MyCoast collects time-stamped public uploads that can be viewed in chronological order. (longislandadvance.net) For weekend visitors, the setup is simple: stop at the stand, frame the bayfront from the marked spot, and upload the image through the QR code. For Patchogue, each new photo adds another record of how its rebuilt Shorefront Park waterfront is holding up. (longislandadvance.net)