Western Snowy Plover

The Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus) was listed as a federally threatened species in 1993. This legal designation requires the National Park Service to monitor the long-term status and trends of the population and maintain stable or increasing populations of Western Snowy Plovers. Plovers are also part of the coastal dune ecosystem, which is identified as an important habitat for conservation in Point Reyes’ enabling legislation. Western snowy plovers are good indicators of the condition of the native coastal dunes ecosystem and are the only nesting shorebird in the coastal habitats. Several large coastal dune restoration projects have benefitted the plovers in the parks. When non-native plants have been removed and native plants encouraged, plovers have responded by successfully nesting or brooding young in restored areas. There is a 20-30 year history of monitoring snowy plovers at Point Reyes and Golden Gate by PRBO Conservation Science, and the parks have been adaptively managing the plovers based on the results of monitoring.