Piping Plover

Speaker: Francesca Cuthbert, University of Minnesota

Dedicated Conservationists make a difference with the piping plover.

If you’re looking for proof that getting listed under the Endangered Species Act and the work of many dedicated conservationists can make a difference, look no further than the piping plover. The Great Lakes population of this small shorebird was teetering on the brink of extinction in the mid-1980s, but with its population now increasing there’s room for cautious optimism.

Francie Cuthbert, who has studied plovers for more than 25 years, will touch on the distribution of one of North America’s rarest shorebirds, with emphasis on the plovers in our region. By the mid-1980s, plovers nested only in Michigan, but now they’re reoccupying historical habitat in Canada, Wisconsin and Illinois.

“Many people believed that there was no hope for this population,” Cuthbert notes. “It is recovering because of the efforts of many stakeholders—private citizens, federal and state agencies, non-profit organizations and university scientists.”
Relevant web site:
www.fws.gov/plover/facts.html