Piping Plovers off the Rock

In our previous post we described the plight of the piping plover here in the province, but the same problems are affecting it in the other Atlantic provinces as well. Since the birds can move between populations, the success of the individual habitats is related to the recovery planning of the species as a whole. So, while it is interesting to compare the recovery planning in other provinces to whats going on here just as part of the theme of our blog (“How is Newfoundland doing?”), it is also related to the long-term survival of the species.

This inter-connectedness has led to the formation of the Atlantic Piping Plover Recovery Team. By looking at the region as a whole, it is easier to come up with clear recovery goals, something which is very difficult for the provinces to do alone. This is because if one province has excellent recovery measures in place, the population increase may not be reflected there, because the birds are increasingly migrating to another province.

The overall recovery goal is obviously to maintain a sustainable population size, and this is described in terms of of adult pairs. For the Atlantic region, the population target is 670 adults, or 335 pairs, maintained over three consecutive censuses with no habitat loss due to human intervention. The recovery goal also includes having a reproduction rate of 1.5 chicks per pair per year, as well as habitat protection for at least 65% of the piping plover population. While this is the immediate goal, the Atlantic Recovery Team has also created a long term goal of 800 adults (Goossen et al., 2002).

While Newfoundland is trying to achieve this goal largely through education, other provinces are taking a more direct approach. In Prince Edward Island, for example, there is a great deal being done to protect the very vulnerable nests. Critical habitat areas are closed off from the public, to protect plovers from people, and enclosures are placed around the nests to protect them from certain predators. You can learn more about this in the following video, prepared by students working with Parks Canada.

In New Brunswick, the dominant approach is also education, although it appears to be much more formally organized and involved. The Coastal Guardian program is organized by Nature New Brunswick – Species at Risk (a non-government organization), with support by Environment Canada, and strives to preserve plover populations on the Acadian Peninsula.

The program has been running since 1995, and employs up to 20 persons per summer to monitor piping plover habitats and educate the public on the importance of the protecting them. In addition to performing community outreach, the group also spends time actually around the plover nests, and can let people near the nests know just where they are, since many people do not pay attention to signage regarding the bird. (Chiasson & Dietz, 2000).

It appears that this heavily involved educational approach is effective, as fledgling success (the number of chicks that a pair is able to raise long enough to leave the nest) has increased considerably since the programs inception (see Figure 1 caption).

Figure 1: Change in fledging success in New Brunswick over a 10 year period, note the increase since 1995
Source: Chiasson & Dietz, 2000

Based on this information, it appears that Newfoundland is lagging a bit behind the other provinces in terms of piping plover recovery planning, but what about our friends down south of the border?

The Atlantic subspecies of piping plovers habitats can also be found in the northeastern United States (see Figure 2), and they face the same threats there as they do here. To monitor and implement recovery measures, a recovery team for the Atlantic United States has been created, composed of academics, government biologists, and experienced practitioners.

Figure 2: Map showing piping plover habitats along the Atlantic, note the summer areas (squares) concentrated in the northeastern states
Source: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

While the American recovery team is undertaking similar conservation measures as Canada, there is a major difference in the purpose of the organization. The Canadian group advises about and facilitates recovery actions, while the American group only acts as an independent advisory to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The Canadian group also meets annually to re-assess their goals and methods, while the American group only meets every second year (Gratto-Trevor & Abbott, 2011).

Hopefully you have learned a few things from our two-part series on the piping plover, and have a better sense of how Newfoundland's conservation measures stack up to other parts of the world. It seems that the province is not taking a very hard stance on conservation, and is instead hoping that educating people will solve the crisis, but this may not be very likely. Instead, a multifaceted approach that addresses all the threats to piping plovers would be much more effective.

This would include expanding the current education program to get people more involved, as well as implementing and (this is the important part) actually enforcing beach closures around critical habitats. The province could also learn from Prince Edward Island's method of protecting the nest from predators. However, it is encouraging to see that the Atlantic Canada recovery team has a much more active role in conservation, both in terms of time commitment, and ability to actually implement their ideas.

-Asfa and Shane

References

 

Chiasson, R. & Dietz, S. (2000). Return from the Brink: Human Guardians Protect Nests of Endangered Plovers. Retrieved April 1, 2012 from http://www.elements.nb.ca/Theme/endangeredspecies/piping/plover.htm

Goossen, J.P., Amirault, D.L., Arndt, J., Bjore, R., Boates, S., Brazil, J., Bretchtel, S., Chiasson, R., Corbett, G.N., Curley, R. Elderkin, M., Felmming, S.P., Harris, W., Heyens, L., Hjertaas, D., Huit, M., Johnson, B., Jones, R., Koontz, W., Laporte, P., McAskill, D., Morrison, R.I.G., Richard, S., Shaffer, F., Stewart, C., Swanson, L., and E. Wiltse. (2002). National Recovery Plan for the Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus). National Recovery Plan No. 22. Recovery of Nationally Endangered Wildlife. Ottawa. 47 pp. (http://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/CW69-11-22-2002E.pdf)

 

Gratto-Trevor, C.L. & Abbott, S. (2011). Conservation of Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) in North America: Science, successes and challenges. Canadian Journal of Zoology 89: 401-418.