National

GreenWatch: The Vanishing Piping Plover

by / Aug. 23, 2015 8am EST

This Sunday’s videa, sponsored by GreenWatch and the Friends of Times Beach Nature Preserve, features a mid-August trip to the New England coast of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, where we explored the plight of the piping plover, a federally threatened species and a New York State endangered species.  

The little shorebird is vanishing due to human development along the sandy beaches that it nests in. As of this month, it is estimated that only about 2,000 nesting pairs remain.

Populations exist along the north Atlantic coast, in parts of the Great Lakes, and in some upper Midwest lake shores.

Although never found in abundance here, in the past it has been observed nesting and migrating along the shorelines of both Lakes Erie and Ontario, including locations close to Times Beach. There are current struggles in both the New York City area and on Long Island to preserve remaining nesting territories from development.

The Friends of Times Beach Nature Preserve is a Buffalo based organization dedicated to preserving and educating about critical habitat and species in the Great Lakes and at the downtown shoreline Buffalo preserve. If you would like to host a program about the Friends of Times Beach and our work, contact us. Please consider a donation today.

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