Environmental organization Ecojustice Canada is suing the Canadian government over new rules to protect the habitat of the endangered piping plover, a shorebird.
Posted yesterday at 4:10 p.m.
The group filed a lawsuit Oct. 31 seeking judicial review of a habitat protection strategy developed by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
The lawsuit argues that Ottawa already had a good program to protect the plover since 2012. According to the statement, this strategy identified 212 beaches across Atlantic Canada and Quebec as critical habitat for these small, sand-colored birds.
But the strategy was changed last September, which changed the way critical habitat is identified, according to the suit.
Ecojustice lawyer Sarah MacDonald says the old strategy did a “very good job” of identifying habitats and said “very clearly” that entire beaches should be protected. But the modified version, she laments, has made changes that weaken its effectiveness.
“Instead of saying an entire beach is critical habitat, what they’re doing now is defining what they call grid sections, one kilometer by one kilometer squares that cover the beaches, she explains. This leaves huge parts of the beach vulnerable to activities that we know are harmful to plovers and their habitat, such as residential development and pollution. »
Ecojustice also believes that “the description of critical habitat in the amended recovery strategy is too vague to support the Minister’s duties to protect critical habitat or to support enforceable legal protections for this habitat,” reads a statement.
Environment and Climate Change Canada media relations said in an email that it is “working diligently on a response” to questions from The Canadian Press and is “consulting with our subject matter experts.”
Piping plovers are tiny birds found only in North America with two subspecies – one that breeds in the Canadian prairies and another along the Atlantic coast.
They were listed as endangered under the Species at Risk Act in 2003, according to Ecojustice. Between 2006 and 2016, the Canadian plover population declined another 30%, to 174 breeding pairs.
The lawsuit argues that human activities such as housing and urban development, pollution from industrial activities, mining and quarrying pose serious and ongoing threats to plover habitat.
Bob Bancroft, president of Nature Nova Scotia, says plovers are attracted to natural disturbances on the beaches where they live, such as after a tropical storm.
“Plovers like to nest in disturbed areas where they have rocks, gravel and sand,” he explains.
Thus, the plover’s nesting sites are constantly on the move, depending on the weather, note Me MacDonald, saying entire beaches should be protected to allow birds to safely follow their natural nesting instincts.