Hidden amongst the footprints of early morning beach goers on San Francisco’s Ocean Beach are traces of a much smaller California resident: the Western snowy plover. As the whitewash laps gently against the shore, tiny brown crested birds flit through the wet sand, hopping from foot to foot as they dig out insects burrowed under the sand, pausing only for a second to swallow before pit-patting off in pursuit of more. For decades, the tu-tweet of the snowy plover was an integral part of the background noise of a day on the beach, harmonizing alongside the dull roar of the ocean. However, after decades of the slow disturbance and destruction of their habitats, these birds have become a much rarer sound and sight.

The Western Snowy Plover is a shorebird whose population spans the Pacific Coast, from southern Washington to Baja California, with the majority of the population nesting in California. The birds are miniscule, an adult averaging only six inches long, with dappled coats of sandy brown that allow them to all but disappear into their surroundings. Some populations migrate inland during the winter before returning to the coasts in the spring, while many live year round on the coastlines.

A petite Western Snowy Plower standing beside a stack of seaweed.

Although the Western Snowy Plover has thrived on the West Coast for hundreds of years, their numbers have steadily dwindled over the last fifty years. Before 1970, the coastal population of plovers nested in over 50 locations across California. However, by the early 1990s, snowy plovers were found nesting in less than half that number of locations. This decline, which stemmed largely from a surge of oceanfront developments and increase of human activity on plover nesting grounds, rang alarm bells in the heads of conservationists. To combat this sharp decline, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Western Snowy Plover as a federally threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 1993. This federal recognition of their endangerment paved the way for the implementation of a variety of methods to help restore their population, ranging from large-scale habitat restoration efforts, protecting nesting areas, and breeding programs. Yet despite the success of these dedicated conservation efforts, the Western Snowy Plover remains vulnerable to becoming endangered due to negligent human activity.

As one of the largest and most ecologically diverse states in the country, it is shocking to visualize just how much biodiversity has been lost in California. When the Gold Rush encouraged people to move en masse to California in the nineteenth century, market hunting decimated hundreds of thousands of game like deer, elk, and pronghorn that once roamed California. Land reclamation efforts to convert the wetlands led to the drainage of various lakes in the Central Valley, including Tulare Lake, formerly the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, and leading to 26.8 million acres of farmland in California today. As agricultural land was developed, the number of grazing livestock also increased exponentially, forever altering the face of California grasslands. These large-scale ecological changes continued well throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, as factories were built, highways were paved, and sprawling urban settlements stretched across the state. These drastic changes to the delicate balance of California ecosystems are not without their consequences. According to the State of California’s Department of Fish & Wildlife, California now has roughly 700 endangered species—including the Western Snowy Plover.

A congregation of snowy plover flies across the shoreline.

The extinction of the snowy plover would be no small loss. Not only are they beloved by many as a defining fixture of California beaches, the snowy plover is monitored as an indicator species. Researchers measure the health of the snowy plover population in order to gauge the health of the ecosystems they occupy.  If snowy plover populations start to drop, it's a sign that something's not quite right with our beaches. It serves as an early warning of ecological imbalance and the decline of the coastal ecosystem. Snowy plovers also play an essential role in the beach ecosystem by foraging for invertebrates and insects, and a significant change in their populations would offset the balance of the beach's food chain, deteriorating a healthy beach ecosystem. It’s not just conservationists who feel this way—various organizations and communities have rallied to help save this essential species.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services, the U.S. Forest Service, and state wildlife agencies collaborated to establish beach integrity for the Western Snowy Plovers. Their removal of non-native plant species that overran the plover’s nesting grounds, deterrence of predators in the area, and restrictions on human activity in the area showed promising results: the number of plover nests on the Pacific coast in 2006 more than doubled from 1990. In 2009, the National Park Service began a coastal dune restoration project in Point Reyes National Park. Two invasive species of plants had dominated over 60% of the park’s 2,200 acres of dunes, and their removal restored hundreds of acres of habitat for snowy plovers and other federally endangered species once again. An even larger-scale restoration project by the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration project began in 2003, with aspirations to bring back over 15,000 acres of wetland near the Bay. This is a huge boon for the snowy plovers, who historically called these marshlands home, and who have returned in greater numbers to nest in these marshes over the last two decades. Altogether, these conservation programs have contributed to greater hatch rates, safer nests, and decreased predation of the snowy plovers.

Three snowy plover standing amongst each other.

Yet if all of these changes have been implemented to a high degree of success, why are snowy plovers still so threatened? The answer is daily human activity.
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Though most people know that outright polluting and destroying habitats is damaging, many are unaware of how seemingly benign activities could inadvertently harm animals like the snowy plover. As a snowy plover’s nest is difficult to distinguish from the sand they burrow in, humans can unknowingly disturb nesting plovers, or even tread on them while jogging or walking. When people drive or ride a vehicle, bike, or horse on the beach, these chicks and eggs are often trampled underfoot, and unleashed dogs often attack snowy plovers and nose through nests. These happenings are compounded by the fact that the snowy plover’s breeding season of March-September coincides with increased recreational activity on beaches and coastlines during the spring and summer.

Human activities can also attract other predators to the snowy plover’s nests, such as leaving food scraps or trash that attracts the attention of raccoons, ravens, foxes, seagulls, and more. Even activities as seemingly harmless as flying a kite or a drone may inadvertently cause harm, as the sight of kites flying overhead resembles predators to the snowy plover. Snowy plovers often perform “broken-wing displays,” moving away from their nest and acting injured to appear as easy prey and draw the predator's attention away from their eggs. Flying a kite can keep a plover off of their nest for a long period of time, leaving the nest vulnerable to other predators finding the nest, sand covering the nest, or the eggs not getting the necessary heat needed to survive, leading to fewer births. A frightened plover might even accidentally crush their own eggs. While most people typically may not consider the harm in letting their dog off leash or going for an early morning jog on the beach, the truth is that these recreational activities pose a large threat to the vulnerable snowy plovers.

Three snowy plover scurrying away from the tide.

In order to encourage beach-goers to preserve Western snowy plover populations, many beaches have taken up the slogan “share the shore,” encouraging residents to be mindful of their impact when nearing protected areas or areas where they reside. These “share the shore'' policies include barring dogs access from certain beaches during plover breeding season or insisting that their leash be kept on, encouraging people to properly dispose of trash, discouraging movement of beach debris that the plover’s may be using to nest, and prohibiting fireworks, drones, frisbees, and kites. They also encourage people to keep off dry sand areas of plover beaches, as plovers are unlikely to nest in wet sand. Some beaches, like Point Reyes, use educational signs and brochures to teach the public about nesting snowy plovers, or have park employees and volunteer docents present to further educate visitors.
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It is essential that visitors to Western snowy plover habitats are informed on how to interact with them and what to avoid to ensure their safety. Community members and beach-visitors can get involved with their continued protection and conservation by volunteering with the local Audubon chapter or the National Park Service to act as a snowy plover docent and educate others, monitoring the populations of snowy plovers with the San Francisco Bay Beach Bird Observatory, or volunteering with the beaches for clean-ups.
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