Why Do Piping Plovers and Least Terns Need Protecting?
For over 25 years, a coalition of groups (starting with Maine Audubon and now including the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, and municipalities) has worked with local residents, landowners, and beachgoers to protect these endangered shorebirds and increase their populations. Historically, Maine had more than 30 miles of suitable nesting beaches that may have supported more than 200 pairs of piping plovers and 1,200 pairs of least terns. Since World War II, however, construction of seawalls, jetties, piers, homes, parking lots, and other structures along the shoreline has reduced the available habitat for these two species by more than 75 percent. This increase in development has brought many more people and their pets to nesting beaches, which keeps adult plovers from tending to their eggs and chicks, leaving the nests vulnerable to the elements and predators. In addition,
