From July 2006 until early 2007, PSG worked with the New York State Department of State to develop a strategic framework for coastal ecosystem-based management (EBM) for New York State. Within the framework, ecosystem-based management was defined as "the management of human activities in order to ensure healthy ecosystems, which can provide the services humans need andwant." The purpose of the framework was to focus the work of the New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Council, a body legislatively created in July 2006 to improve NY State's coastal resources. The Council consists of the Commissioners of nine state agencies and is led by the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
The Council has been charged with nine significant responsibilities focused on protecting, restoring and enhancing coastal ecosystems. The framework PSG developed with the involvement of the nine New York State agencies that made up the Council was aimed at establishing statewide mechanisms for advancing new ecosystem management practices at the local level within defined ecosystems, whether coastal or inland watersheds. Given that EBM is an emerging practice in the field, the framework addressed an approach for guiding the Council's work at the statewide level on broad policy areas such as environmental stewardship, energy, transportation, open space, agriculture and local planning among others, as well as within each of the state agencies and the more than 200 state programs that in some way had in impact on the health of local ecosystems and how they are used for economic, cultural, or recreational purposes.
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