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In 2006, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the western snowy plover an Endangered Species Act triumph. The pocket-sized shorebird has thrived where it’s been left undisturbed in suitable habitat, and when human harassment and destruction of nest sites has been reduced; since the plover was declared “threatened” in 1993, its population size has increased by more than 50 percent. But the bird’s critical habitat protections have been proven very vulnerable, and threats to the species are far from eliminated.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT PROFILE
PROTECTION STATUS: Threatened
YEAR PLACED ON LIST: 1993
CRITICAL HABITAT: 12,145 acres within 20 counties in Washington, Oregon, and California, designated in 2005
RECOVERY PLAN: 2007
RANGE: Along the coasts of Washington, Oregon, California, and Mexico, with the largest number of breeding birds occurring south of San Francisco Bay to southern Baja California
THREATS: Loss of nesting habitat and habitat degradation caused by expanding beach-front development and recreation, human disturbance, off-leash dogs, encroachment of European beach grass on nesting grounds, pesticides, and predation
POPULATION TREND: In California, numbers increased from 976 breeding plovers in 2000 to 1,680 adult plovers in 2005. In Oregon, 23 of the bird’s historic breeding sites had been lost by 1993, but four are now reoccupied and numbers are growing. In Washington, only three out of five coastal nesting sites remain, but habitat conditions have improved and the number of breeding birds has at least remained steady and may have increased since listing. Overall, the U.S. portion of the Pacific Coast population is estimated to have increased from 1,500 birds in 1993 to approximately 2,300 birds in 2005.
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SAVING THE WESTERN SNOWY PLOVER
The western snowy plover’s favorite seaside spots are also favored by developers, who have left West Coast beaches riddled with houses and torn apart by roads. To protect the bird from habitat destruction, the Center successfully pressured the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service to designate critical habitat for the species in 1999 — a move that proved crucial to the bird’s subsequent population increase. But despite Center intervention, a building-industry lawsuit led the Bush administration to slash habitat protections in 2005, eliminating thousands of acres deemed essential to the snowy plover’s survival. Currently, just over 12,000 acres remain protected, and the bird’s current recovery plan fails to call for sufficient population restoration.
In addition to habitat destruction by development, a variety of other human activities have adversely affected the western snowy plover, especially in California. The Center has done its best to minimize the damage. We’ve worked hard to stop oil drilling in key plover habitat, and we’ve also filed a formal emergency petition promoting the enforcement of dog-leash laws at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, a major plover wintering site in which unleashed pets pose a significant threat to the bird and its young. Most recently, in 2006, the Center published a comprehensive report examining the risk pesticides pose to endangered species in the San Francisco Bay Area — including snowy plovers. We continue to protect the bird through our Pesticides Reduction and Urban Sprawl campaigns.
Because the bird’s 2005 critical habitat rule — made under the political influence of disgraced former Interior Department official Julie MacDonald — is inadequate and illegal, in 2007 the Center filed a notice of intent to sue the Bush administration for that and 54 other corruption-tainted Endangered Species Act decisions. We’re determined to make sure the snowy plover stays on its path to full recovery.
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Contact: Jeff Miller
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