The Piping Plover is listed as an endangered species by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). These small shorebirds arrive in their breeding grounds in April or May, nesting along sandbars, coastlines, and lake shores. About one-quarter of Canada's Piping Plovers are found in Atlantic Canada; most others are in the Prairies. Regardless of their location, their numbers have been declining.

The biggest single reason for that drop is the loss of habitat and most of that loss is caused by human disturbances around nesting sites. Those disturbances range from building activities to the recreational use of beaches. Piping Plovers also are vulnerable to attacks by pets such as dogs and cats, crows, seagulls, and raccoons that are drawn to the area by litter left by picnickers or beachgoers.

The Atlantic Beach Guardian Program is funded in large part through the Government of Canada’s Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk. The goal of the Habitat Stewardship Program is to contribute to the recovery and protection of habitat for species at risk, and for other species of special concern. The program encourages Canadians to care for the environment by monitoring and conserving wildlife species and habitats, as well as protecting and improving the quality of soil, water, air and other natural resources. Conservation, particularly protecting the areas where species at risk live, is essential to their recovery and to prevent other species from becoming at risk.

Canadians are involved in projects funded through the Habitat Stewardship Program across the country. Many beaches in Atlantic Canada are included in the Beach Guardian Program, which monitors beaches to protect wildlife and minimize damage to wildlife and habitat. Individual concerned citizens, community groups, educational institutions and non-governmental organizations work together with government to conserve species and habitat.

The Beach Guardian Program covers seashores and sand dunes, lake sides and marshes – any areas near water where wildlife habitat is sensitive. These areas are coming under increasing pressure from contact by humans. Houses and cottages are built on beaches. People are riding all-terrain vehicles on beaches and along watercourses. New businesses – tourism, aquaculture, commercial seaweed harvesting, among others – are bringing more people to sensitive areas. It is important for Canadians to realize that something as innocent as a waterside trek or a picnic can damage sensitive habitats and threaten species at risk.

The Nova Scotia Piping Plover Guardian Program (NSPPGP) was started in 1992 to recruit and train volunteers to decrease the disturbance by humans on beaches where Piping Plovers nest. In addition, the NSPPGP provides educational information to a wide audience and offers landowner stewardship options to raise awareness of Piping Plover issues in Nova Scotia.

This year's funding under the Habitat Stewardship Program is $40,000. Matching contributions from other levels of government, non-governmental organizations, and volunteers brings total project funding this year to $185,576 and allows the Program to continue on a long-term basis.

The project will conduct population surveys, including the International Piping Plover Census. Nova Scotia once was home to the largest portion of Piping Plovers in eastern Canada but their numbers have declined so much that fewer than 20% of the eastern Canada population now live and breed in Nova Scotia. The NSPPGP focus is on protecting nesting areas and gathering information on all potential Piping Plover coastal areas in the province, with an increased effort in the Shelburne/Queens, Bridgewater, and Pictou/Antigonish areas.

Increasing awareness of damage to coastal habitats is expected to benefit other wildlife species as well as the Piping Plover.

More than 100 people serve as volunteers to protect 25 - 30 nesting area beaches. The Guardian program holds workshops and trains local volunteers about the risks faced by the Piping Plover, how to contact and educate recreational beach users, and how to monitor nesting and fledgling areas. It also erects signs at nesting areas, and, if necessary, builds fences or other enclosures to protect high-risk plovers from threatening activities. Volunteers help keep beaches clean so they will not attract predators of the Piping Plover. An education program about the dangers faced by the Piping Plover will be developed and presented to schools and the general public, including landowners. Stewardship agreements will be established with landowners adjacent to Piping Plover nesting areas. The volunteers record and report the numbers of Plovers returning to Nova Scotia, the areas and the dates they are seen, their courting, nesting, hatching and fledging behaviour, and any destruction of habitat or predation by other species. Reports are also submitted to the Nova Scotia Bird Society, the Canadian Wildlife Service, the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, the Recovery Team member for Nova Scotia and to other Atlantic Guardian programs to help determine the "big picture" in terms of the plover's migration, nesting and fledgling behaviour. The program coordinates its efforts with other conservation groups and stewardship programs in the province.

Educational activities include talking to people at beaches, handing out brochures to interested beachgoers, and conducting workshops for school groups and community groups (such as the All-Terrain Vehicle association).

Partners in the project include the Nova Scotia Nature Trust, the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, volunteers, community groups, the Nova Scotia Life Guard Association, Clean Nova Scotia, Halifax Field Naturalists, and Environment Canada’s Canadian Wildlife Service.

The Nova Scotia Piping Plover Guardian Program is coordinated by the Nova Scotia Bird Society, a not-for-profit group.

The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) provides independent scientific and expert advice to governments on the status of wildlife species in Canada. COSEWIC is composed of professional scientists from universities, museums, provinces and territories, national conservation organizations and federal agencies as well as experts with Aboriginal traditional knowledge and community knowledge who meet the established credentials. The Committee has placed 353 wild species in its risk categories. Those categories are:

• Extinct - Species no longer exists. (examples: Great Auk, Passenger Pigeon)
  
  
• Extirpated - Species no longer exists in the wild in Canada, but occurs elsewhere. (examples: Black-Footed Ferret, Pygmy Short-horned Lizard)
  
  
• Endangered - Species facing imminent extinction or extirpation. (examples: St. Lawrence Beluga Whale, Swift Fox, Burrowing Owl, Leatherback Turtle)
  
  
• Threatened - Species likely to become endangered if limiting factors are not reversed. (examples: Wood Bison, Peregrine Falcon, American Chestnut Tree)
  
  
• Special Concern - Species are of special concern because of characteristics that make them particularly sensitive to human activities or natural events. (examples: Grizzly Bear, Atlantic Cod, Monarch Butterfly)
  
  

Paul Chamberland
Environment Canada
Canadian Wildlife Service, Atlantic Region
Tel: (506) 364-5049