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On the shores of Fort Taber, two piping plover chicks and their parents forage for food before they begin their journey back down south. The happy family marks a major conservational milestone for New Bedford — it’s the first time since the city’s conservation program started that any piping plover fledglings have made it to adolescence.
“From a distance, they look like adults,” New Bedford conservation agent Chance Perks said. “But once you see them next to their parents, you realize they’re just a couple of gangly teenagers.”
The success in New Bedford mirrors a statewide trend, thanks in part to decades of stringent wildlife and habitat protection, Mass Audubon coastal waterbird director Lyra Brennan said. While piping plovers in other states have seen a gradual decline in population, Massachusetts has seen its shorebird count balloon from just 135 pairs at its lowest to over 1,200 pairs today.
Now, new federal rollbacks could dismantle that progress, advocates and experts say. The Trump administration finalized a rule on July 10 that would no longer consider habitat protection to be part of endangered species protection. On July 14, a group of environmental nonprofits including the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation filed a complaint against the federal administration to overturn the new rule.
The rule, which does not include “harm to habitat” under its new definition of “harm,” reverses 50 years of conservational law and stands to adversely impact hundreds of endangered species, the complaint alleges.
“Destruction and degradation of habitat kills threatened and endangered species just as surely as shooting them,” the complaint reads.
Habitat protection is especially critical for species such as piping plovers, which nest on small strips of barrier beaches each year. In New Bedford, beginning in April, Perks and department field technician Harrison Letourneau fence off 50 square yards of beach for the arriving shorebirds. They spend the next three months defending the species from curious dogs and not-so-careful beachgoers.
This year, their efforts went off without a major hitch, Perks said. At the beginning of nesting season, Perks said his goal was to have the chicks fledge — learn to fly on their own — before July 4, when beach real estate gets particularly contentious. The sibling pair fledged on July 2.
Next year could be different. Piping plovers and other species no longer have federal habitat protections under the new rule, CLF associate attorney Sarah Shahabi said. Although new developments will still undergo endangered species analysis at the federal level, this analysis will no longer take habitat loss into consideration.
Most states, including Massachusetts, have their own endangered species legislation, which creates an extra layer of protection, Shahabi acknowledged. But those laws can differ widely, and endangered species don’t live according to state lines.
“Shorebirds are migratory,” Shahabi said. In winter, they fly south, to states where development might now happen “without having to minimize the negative impacts on piping plovers,” she explained. “They might find that their beaches are gone, that they no longer have a safe place.”
Brennan believes that the disparate regulatory landscape could be to blame for the plovers’ uneven comeback. Other states have not seen the same piping plover population bounce-back as Massachusetts has, and their numbers could dwindle even further under the new federal regulations, she said. For that reason, it’s even more important to keep the state’s positive trend.
Researchers are still digging into why Massachusetts shorebirds have bounced back more successfully than those in other states, even those with very similar state endangered species laws. But Brennan said habitat conservation definitely plays a role.
“The welfare of a species and the health of the lands and waters where it lives are inextricably linked,” Brennan said.
After 27 years studying coastal waterbirds at the Lloyd Center in Dartmouth, research associate Jamie Bogart is more optimistic.
“States like us with the state endangered species act, with the Wetlands Protection Act. … I think we’re as well positioned as anyone to kind of withstand that,” Bogart said. “As long as the state and local levels stand their ground, I think we’ll be okay.”
As to why these birds and other endangered species matter to humans? It’s not about just their charisma.
“You may not love the birds, but you love the beach, the place where these birds are from,” Brennan said. “These birds are bellwethers. They’re showing us that these places are healthy. … We rely on these ecosystems just as much as plovers do.”
Email Brooke Kushwaha at bkushwaha@newbedfordlight.org.
Piping plovers taste like chicken!
Eliminating habitat protection for endangered species will only hasten the result that humans will soon become the endangered species.
I wonder how we will deal with that?
This is an opportunity for our schools to step in and begin teaching young children the importance of respecting nature, our planet, the environment, and all living species. Everything in nature is interconnected through the circle of life, and the health of our planet depends on maintaining that balance. Ultimately, the well-being and survival of humanity are closely linked to how well we protect and care for the natural world.