Piping Plovers and Least Terns: The Last 100 Years

Pre-1900
Piping plovers and their nesting companions, least terns, are common
summer residents on most Atlantic Coast beaches.

Early 1900s
Uncontrolled hunting (primarily for the millinery trade) and egg collecting greatly reduce tern and plover populations.

1918
The demise of many seabird species ignites a public outcry for protection and the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act is passed, protecting all migratory birds for the first time. Piping plover and least tern numbers slowly begin to recover.

Post-World War II
Maine's seabird populations decline dramatically again after habitat is lost to dune stabilization projects, seawalls, jetties, piers, parking lots and summer home construction. Biologists estimate more than 70 percent of Maine's historic plover and tern habitat has been lost.

1975
The U.S. Endangered Species Act is passed.

1977
Maine Audubon Biologist Jane Arbuckle bands the first least tern in Maine while Maine Audubon conducts the state's first survey for least
terns and finds that between 50 and 60 pairs are nesting and raising 50 young.

1981
Maine Audubon conducts the state's first piping plover survey, finding that only 10 pairs of plovers are nesting and raising only nine young.

1983
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife creates its first fund for endangered and nongame wildlife through contributions from the " chickadee check-off" on state income tax forms.

1985
Maine Audubon successfully petitions DIFW to list least terns as endangered in Maine, leading the state to form a committee to determine other species for Maine's list.

1986
Maine's first list of 23 endangered and threatened species is adopted and includes piping plovers and least terns.

1980s
With the cooperation of a handful of landowners, Maine Audubon locates,
monitors and even erects stake-and-twine or metal fences around active
plover and tern nests to reduce the loss of eggs and chicks to predators. Outreach begins to keep people and pets away from nests.

1989
Maine Audubon staff and volunteers erect the first exclosures around piping plover nests. These circles of wire-mesh fencing with rows of twine over top deter both mammalian and avian predators and signal a significant turnaround for piping plovers. Meanwhile, least terns produce only eight fledglings.

1991
The Maine DIFW adopts recovery goals and objectives for saving piping
plovers by increasing the number of nesting pairs and active nesting sites as well as productivity (the average number of chicks fledged per pair).

1991-1995
Piping plover productivity increases to two chicks per pair.

1995
DIFW's 1991 goals are met and exceeded. Maine Audubon publishes and
distributes to landowners the first Piping Plover and Least Tern Newsletter.

1999
With funding from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, Maine Audubon stations overnight biologists at the largest colony of least terns to ward off predators. The practice proves highly successful with 62 pairs
producing 67 young, the second-highest productivity since monitoring
began in 1977.

2000
Since 1996, between 47 and 60 pairs of piping plovers have nested on as many as 19 different beaches. Productivity has dropped slightly to one and a half chicks per pair. Meanwhile, a record-high 126 pairs of terns produce 81 fledglings.

2001
Piping plovers produce a record-breaking 100 fledglings.

Today
A Maine Audubon-led coalition of conservation organizations and individuals continues to work with local residents, landowners, real estate brokers and the general public to conserve piping plovers and least terns. Coalition members include the Maine Department of Inland
Fisheries and Wildlife, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, the Wells Reserve, Bates College, the Small Point Beach Association, the Prouts Neck Country Club, the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust, officials from Wells, Ogunquit, Scarborough and Old Orchard Beach and various other municipalities and dozens of volunteers.