The population of the Great Lakes piping plover has rebounded sharply in the last several years, says Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Endangered Species Coordinator Pat Lederle.

From a low of 17 nesting pairs in 1991, the population of the shorebird has increased to more than 40 pairs and perhaps as many as 45 this year, Lederle says. More than 70 young plovers fledged last year. The total might climb as high as 80 this year. Plovers are expanding their range in Michigan, with new nests this year at Tawas Bay State Park and an Alpena site.

Plovers, whose prime nesting habitat happens to fall on some of the same Great Lakes beaches that human beings enjoy, have been the subject of an intense rescue effort by a variety of agencies, including the DNR's Wildlife and Parks Divisions, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Forest Service, the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory and numerous volunteers, according to Lederle.

Although most of the effort to protect the plovers involves cordoning off and monitoring nesting habitat on public lands during the breeding season, a number of private landowners have also been cooperative, says Lederle. The LaFarge Corporation at Alpena has cooperated with the DNR in protecting nesting habitat, and property owner William Sommerville at Cross Village has also assisted the agency in guarding key habitat on his property, where plovers have nested for years.

The Great Lakes population of piping plovers is designated endangered, while the northern Great Plains and Atlantic populations are designated threatened. All three populations winter in the southern United States and the Caribbean. Besides development of shoreline habitat, off-road vehicle use and disturbance by swimmers during the breeding season contributed to the decline of the plover up to the 1990s.

Lederle calls the plover recovery effort "one of the more enjoyable" projects in which he's involved.