Proposal would reduce plover habitat

Saturday, December 18, 2004

By JEFF BARNARD
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- The federal government proposed yesterday to protect smaller but more numerous sections of West Coast beaches as habitat for the Western snowy plover, saying it hoped to reduce conflicts between the tiny shore bird and people playing in the sand.

The new critical-habitat proposal is the result of a federal court order won by Coos County commissioners on the ground that the original proposal did not include a proper economic-impact statement.

The new proposal comes as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering petitions to lift Endangered Species Act protection for the bird.

Paul Henson, assistant manager of the agency's California-Nevada Operations Office, said he hoped to use the critical-habitat process to open as much beach as possible to recreation while providing what the plover needs to recover, without having to resort to heavy-handed regulation.

"There are going to be areas where beach recreation should be a priority," Henson said from Sacramento, Calif.

"If that impacts plovers, hopefully they are doing well enough in other areas that they can withstand that contact."

The proposal calls for establishing 35 units covering 17,299 acres, a reduction of 11 percent in area from the 28 units covering 19,474 acres designated in 1999.

Federal land makes up 26 percent of the proposed area, 51 percent of state or other public and 23 percent of private land.

The reductions came from eliminating military land where habitat protections are in place, fine-tuning mapping and a better understanding of the habitat needs of the plover, the agency said.

An estimated 2,600 snowy plovers are distributed along the coast in California, Oregon and Washington, with the highest numbers in California and fewest in Washington.

The birds forage for food in the surf and lay camouflaged eggs in depressions in bare sand. They are down to 28 nesting sites, the result primarily of European beach grass being planted to stabilize shifting dunes.

Gains in populations have been made recently by killing foxes and crows that prey on the nests and by clearing beach grass.

During nesting season, restrictions have been imposed on driving, running dogs and walking on beaches near nesting areas, prompting loud complaints from some beach users.

Several popular beaches on the Oregon coast were considered for critical habitat, but not proposed. They include the Necanicum, Nahalem and Netarts areas. Oregon has suggested its own plover protections.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is almost done with a review of whether the plover should stay on the threatened species list at all. It was sought by the Surf Ocean Beach Commission of Lompoc, Calif., and the city of Morro Bay, Calif.

They argue that plovers on the beach are no different from more numerous inland populations of the bird.

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