Piping Plovers are a Symbol of the Challenges and Triumphs of Endangered Species

During the fall migration, piping plovers are ready to thrive, will we let them?

WASAGA, ON, Sept. 23, 2025 /CNW/ - Recent legislative developments in Ontario and Canada have further jeopardized the already bleak future of endangered piping plovers. Ontario's Bill 5 and Canada's Bill C-5 both sidestep environmental protections – including for species at risk. Ontario went further by repealing the Endangered Species Act and replacing it with far weaker legislation.

Piping Plover Sauble Beach © Sam Cava (CNW Group/Ontario Nature)

Compounding the issue, in May 2025, the Government of Ontario announced it was transferring a significant portion of the Wasaga Beach Provincial Park to the Town of Wasaga Beach to develop the waterfront for tourism. The shorebirds and their offspring need a shallow nest in a habitat free from disturbance to reproduce successfully. Inappropriate beach development will have devastating effects on piping plover nesting habitat at Wasaga Beach.

Summer fledglings become air-borne adults in the fall and join others of their kind on route to warmer climates. What will they have to return to?

Many Canadian bird populations have experienced significant declines over the last 50 years. In Ontario, habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation, land-use changes, climate change and collisions with buildings are aggregating factors.

All levels of governments must sustain the ecological integrity of sensitive habitats and long-standing management approaches at places like Wasaga Beach Provincial Park. The survival of endangered species and their ecosystems hang in the balance.

"Sacrificing vulnerable species to address economic uncertainty is short sighted and ignores the many benefits ecosystems provide. We need economic solutions that operate in harmony with nature, not in conflict," says Tony Morris, Ontario Nature's Conservation Policy and Campaigns Director.

Ontario Nature is calling on both the provincial and federal governments to maintain their commitments to the piping plover, as outlined in the 2013 Action Plan for the Piping Plover in Ontario and 2013 provincial recovery strategy. Specifically, we urge the federal Minister to issue a critical habitat order to protect piping plovers. Canada made an international commitment to protect 30 percent of its lands and waters by 2030. Ontario's protected areas network is roughly 11 percent. The province can and must do better.

Biodiversity loss can only be halted and reversed if we keep ecosystems intact. Ontario is moving in the wrong direction for species like piping plovers by taking lands out of provincial parks and weakened endangered species legislation.

Ontario Nature protects wild species and wild spaces through conservation, education and public engagement. Ontario Nature is a charitable organization representing 9,500 members, 130,000 supporters and 150 member groups from across Ontario. For more information, visit ontarionature.org.

Background  

• Piping plovers are a small white-grayish shorebird with bright orange legs and an orange bill that has a black tip. They are migratory birds that nest exclusively on beaches, have two distinct subspecies and can be found throughout North America.
• Throughout the last forty years, Canada has identified piping plovers as endangered: first, in 1985 at the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife, then in 2003 under Canada's Species at Risk Act and across Ontario through the provincial Endangered Species Act, which took effect in 2008.
• The fall migration occurs from August to November, and peaks in September.
• 2025 is the 108^th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Convention Act which is designed to protect at-risk migratory birds in Canada and the United States.
• The State of Canada's Birds 2024 notes that on average, Canadian bird populations have decreased by 36 percent since the 1970s.
• Migratory shorebirds have declined by more than 40 percent; grassland birds have declined by over 65 per cent.
• In 2007, after a near 30-year absence, piping plovers returned to the shores of the Great Lakes, including Saugeen Beach (formerly Sauble Beach). A year later they successfully nested at Wasaga Beach.
• Piping plovers winter in Florida and Mexico, then fly north to places in the United States of America and Canada to nest in late-spring and early-summer.
• Bill 5 repeals the Endangered Species Act, creates "special economic zones" exempt from provincial laws and undermines the rights of Indigenous Peoples. It was passed on June 5, 2025.
• In 2022, Canada embraced international targets for protecting at least 30 percent of its lands and waters by 2030 (commonly referred to as the 30x30 target). While 86 percent of Ontarians support the expansion of protected areas, Ontario has become a laggard among its peers with less than 11 percent of the province protected.

SOURCE Ontario Nature

For more information or to arrange an interview: John Hassell | Communications and Engagement Director, Editor | [email protected] | 416-786-2171