Anonymous Sender:
I checked on the Oregon Biodiversity Information Center which is
administered through Portland State University. I should have recognized this
program but it has changed its name; it used to be part of the Oregon Heritage
Plan .... Go to the website www.orbic.pdx.edu/publications.html and you will find Dave and Kathy's annual study report for the 2011 Snowy Plover nesting season.
Based on their research findings, the Snowy Plover in coastal Oregon
has attained or is very close to attaining the recovery goals established by the
USFWS Recovery Plan. But, as I told you before, this bird will not be delisted
by the fed's even if the goal is met in Oregon and Washington, because the
recovery criteria for California will require an increase of about 1,000 birds
(as I recall off the top of my head). This will probably never happen; moreover,
even if the bird were delisted in Oregon by the fed's the head of State Parks
said he wouldn't care and continue to set habitat aside for the bird. Also note
that the authors of the report suggest that we need to start looking at
protecting the bird on their wintering grounds (to increase over-winter
survivorship). This bird is more widely dispersed in the winter, so this
argument could be used to close beaches in the winter in areas where they do not
nest, in addition to closing the nest areas year-round. Also note the call for
expanding the closure zones during the nesting season, because with the increase
in abundance and fledging success nesting density is increasing, which will
increase the likelihood of predation unless we provide more undisturbed nesting
areas.
We all want to protect coastal populations of Snowy Plovers in
perpetuity, and we can, even with limiting set-aside areas and regulations to
what they are now and continuing the active protection against nest predation
(which they are doing). But these folks have a bigger agenda: they cannot stand
the idea, for example, of ATV activity on our dunes and beaches and they will
use any excuse to shut this activity down. An activity that was recently
estimated to bring $60 million a year into the economy of coastal towns in just
the area from Florence to Coos Bay.
I checked on the Oregon Biodiversity Information Center which is
administered through Portland State University. I should have recognized this
program but it has changed its name; it used to be part of the Oregon Heritage
Plan .... Go to the website www.orbic.pdx.edu/publications.html and you will find Dave and Kathy's annual study report for the 2011 Snowy Plover nesting season.
Based on their research findings, the Snowy Plover in coastal Oregon
has attained or is very close to attaining the recovery goals established by the
USFWS Recovery Plan. But, as I told you before, this bird will not be delisted
by the fed's even if the goal is met in Oregon and Washington, because the
recovery criteria for California will require an increase of about 1,000 birds
(as I recall off the top of my head). This will probably never happen; moreover,
even if the bird were delisted in Oregon by the fed's the head of State Parks
said he wouldn't care and continue to set habitat aside for the bird. Also note
that the authors of the report suggest that we need to start looking at
protecting the bird on their wintering grounds (to increase over-winter
survivorship). This bird is more widely dispersed in the winter, so this
argument could be used to close beaches in the winter in areas where they do not
nest, in addition to closing the nest areas year-round. Also note the call for
expanding the closure zones during the nesting season, because with the increase
in abundance and fledging success nesting density is increasing, which will
increase the likelihood of predation unless we provide more undisturbed nesting
areas.
We all want to protect coastal populations of Snowy Plovers in
perpetuity, and we can, even with limiting set-aside areas and regulations to
what they are now and continuing the active protection against nest predation
(which they are doing). But these folks have a bigger agenda: they cannot stand
the idea, for example, of ATV activity on our dunes and beaches and they will
use any excuse to shut this activity down. An activity that was recently
estimated to bring $60 million a year into the economy of coastal towns in just
the area from Florence to Coos Bay.
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