Anyone seen a Snowy Plover in Oregon??Fight back.
Mar 23, 2004 | 04:48 PM
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Anyone seen a Snowy Plover in Oregon??Fight back.
read this guys. Could be good news.
U.S. will review plover's status
Agency to decide if bird should be protected species
David Sneed
The Tribune
SAN SIMEON - A federal agency has decided to review the status of the Western snowy plover, a move that could be the first step in removing the tiny shorebird from the endangered species list.
The public is denied access to large sections of Central Coast beaches as part of efforts to protect the birds.
The Fish and Wildlife Service announced the review Monday. The agency has been sued by several groups that want the plover's protected status revoked, including the city of Morro Bay.
The review is expected to take about nine months, said Lois Grunwald, a spokeswoman for the agency. During that time, the bird will remain fully protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Both sides of the controversy over the plover praised the agency's decision.
Gregory Broderick, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, said the plover is not threatened and should be delisted. The foundation is one of the groups that sued the agency.
"The government is still keeping people off of hundreds of miles of beaches based on junk science," he said.
Conversely, environmentalists think the plover population is in worse condition than when the bird was listed in 1993 and is now teetering on the brink of extinction. In 2003, biologists counted 1,629 breeding adult birds on the Pacific Coast. In 1999, the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated as many as 2,500 plovers lived along the California coast.
"I think an unbiased review will result in the plover being upgraded from threatened to endangered," said Tarren Collins, chairwoman of the local Sierra Club.
The controversy revolves around a decision by the Fish and Wildlife Service that plovers nesting along the Pacific Coast are a "distinct population segment" that is separate from inland populations of snowy plovers. This is based on the fact that coastal plovers nest in different areas than their inland cousins.
Such distinct populations are eligible for endangered species status. The lawsuits argue that there is no difference between inland and coastal plovers and they are not threatened.
The small nesting shorebird has been listed as a federal threatened species since 1993.
Beaches in Morro Bay, Cayucos and San Simeon have all seen closures and dog prohibitions to protect the plovers. The closures usually consist of inland parts of the beach being roped off to keep people out while the wet-sand areas near the surf line remain open
U.S. will review plover's status
Agency to decide if bird should be protected species
David Sneed
The Tribune
SAN SIMEON - A federal agency has decided to review the status of the Western snowy plover, a move that could be the first step in removing the tiny shorebird from the endangered species list.
The public is denied access to large sections of Central Coast beaches as part of efforts to protect the birds.
The Fish and Wildlife Service announced the review Monday. The agency has been sued by several groups that want the plover's protected status revoked, including the city of Morro Bay.
The review is expected to take about nine months, said Lois Grunwald, a spokeswoman for the agency. During that time, the bird will remain fully protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Both sides of the controversy over the plover praised the agency's decision.
Gregory Broderick, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, said the plover is not threatened and should be delisted. The foundation is one of the groups that sued the agency.
"The government is still keeping people off of hundreds of miles of beaches based on junk science," he said.
Conversely, environmentalists think the plover population is in worse condition than when the bird was listed in 1993 and is now teetering on the brink of extinction. In 2003, biologists counted 1,629 breeding adult birds on the Pacific Coast. In 1999, the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated as many as 2,500 plovers lived along the California coast.
"I think an unbiased review will result in the plover being upgraded from threatened to endangered," said Tarren Collins, chairwoman of the local Sierra Club.
The controversy revolves around a decision by the Fish and Wildlife Service that plovers nesting along the Pacific Coast are a "distinct population segment" that is separate from inland populations of snowy plovers. This is based on the fact that coastal plovers nest in different areas than their inland cousins.
Such distinct populations are eligible for endangered species status. The lawsuits argue that there is no difference between inland and coastal plovers and they are not threatened.
The small nesting shorebird has been listed as a federal threatened species since 1993.
Beaches in Morro Bay, Cayucos and San Simeon have all seen closures and dog prohibitions to protect the plovers. The closures usually consist of inland parts of the beach being roped off to keep people out while the wet-sand areas near the surf line remain open
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