Reserve Lands Award for Snowy Plover Protection

By VIC COX

Late last month, Cristina Sandoval, director of UCSB's Coal Oil Point Natural Reserve (COPR), and two other partner groups received an award for protecting Western snowy plovers while still allowing beach recreation in the reserve.

The Natural Areas Association, meeting in Madison, Wis., presented its 2003 Resource Stewardship Award to COPR, the Santa Barbara Audubon Society, and the United States Geological Survey for their complementary roles in establishing and maintaining a balance between the threatened shorebirds' need of an undisturbed breeding area and human use of a popular beach.

The recognition came on the heels this summer of a mini-boom in the plovers' population: 39 chicks hatched inside a roped-off, 400-yard wide stretch of sand and plant debris at COPR's Devereux Beach. These chicks represented the largest number of successful hatchings in the three years since plover births resumed following a hiatus of at least 30 years.

To give this achievement context, Sandoval told her Madison audience that the 39 chicks were the result of 63 eggs, 45 of which hatched, from 24 nests. About a month after hatching, the fledglings were able to fly off with their flock.

The previous year, 14 chicks fledged from 21 eggs. In 2001, only two chicks hatched, and one was eaten by a crow the day Sandoval spotted it. That incident sped up her plover protection plan, which was based on research by USGS ecologist Kevin Lafferty that analyzed plover and human use of the beach.

Lafferty, who is married to Sandoval, said his research predicted that simple measures, such as a rope fence marking the beach end of the breeding zone, would drop disturbance rates, "but I had no idea the plovers would respond as dramatically as they did."

Educating people to the value of the six-inch adult birds and their fluff-ball chicks–and getting them and their dogs to respect the rope boundary–was another vital component. For that purpose, Sandoval worked with the local Audubon Society to train volunteer docents who would also serve as monitors and guardians.

Under coordinator Jennifer Stroh, the docents protected the plovers from crows, off-leash dogs, and thoughtless beach-goers. "The community is now incredibly supportive," said Stroh, "and more than 100 individuals have volunteered. It is amazing to come to the beach and watch plover chicks literally run around your legs (because with a refuge) they no longer see humans as a threat."

In addition, other bird species feel safe. Sandoval reported a "threefold increase in other birds" has occurred in the protected zone, including a rising number of endangered least terns. So far the terns are not breeding in the reserve, but they are nesting and raising their chicks here, she told 93106.