US Fish & Wildlife: A new reality for plovers on the Jersey Shore
On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy plowed ashore near Atlantic City, N.J., with sustained winds of 75 miles per hour. In its wake, state officials declared it the most destructive natural disaster in the history of New Jersey. It changed communities dramatically.
Natural features of the coastline underwent significant changes too, but in some cases, those changes presented new conservation opportunities that could protect people and wildlife in the face of future storms.
“We were able to identify places where piping plover habitat had been enhanced by the storm,” explained Todd Pover, a senior biologist for the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey who has been involved in monitoring the federally threatened shorebird for 25 years. Places like Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, where the storm erased the dunes in a three-quarter mile stretch of beach, creating an open expanse from ocean to bay.
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Interesting about habitat enhancement – maybe the only positive effect of a hurricane. And we benefit from your birds every year – at the moment we are hosting 3 birds from EBF NWR: returners Squid and Felicia Fancybottom; and newcomer Sushi. One or two other regulars have not yet been spotted. Please ask Todd to come over!!! RH
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