Local Beachgoers Asked to Help Endangered Bird

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Every year, about the beginning of May, Piping Plovers fly up from the Gulf Coast of Mexico where they winter and look for wide, sandy beaches to nest on.

“We can learn to live alongside of these rare species and give them a little space,” St. Louis River Alliance project manager Kris Eilers said.

The rare species population in the great lakes area is on the critically endangered list because development has crowded them out.

In the last couple of weeks two Piping Plovers have been spotted on Park Point scoping out territory to nest, which is something that has not happened since the 1980s.

“We know that we are close to extinction here with the Great Lakes Piping Plovers,” said Eilers. “So when we see two of them on our beach here it’s a pretty big deal.”

One of the shorebirds was seen on Park Point by the airport.

To help with breeding efforts the St. Louis River Alliance is asking the public to stay away from that area and to keep their dogs on a six foot or shorter leash at all times because loose dogs are seen as predators.

“Ideally in fact people would actually just avoid this area with their dogs even on a leash,” City of Duluth animal shelter lead worker Carrie Lane said. “To be cooperative with this effort I would say that the ideal thing is that people would just choose not to bring their dogs into this area at all.”

Beachgoers are also being asked to walk on the trail on the top of the dune instead of the wide beach.

The nesting season will go from now until mid-June.

Right now there are 70 nesting pairs in the Great Lakes the goal is to double that number.