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In July 2025, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southern California Coastal Program and Ecological Services staff joined California State Parks staff to visit a 2021 Coastal Program funded project to benefit federally threatened western snowy plover. Snowy plovers are small shorebirds that nest, roost, and over-winter on open sandy beaches along the Pacific Coast. The snowy plovers are federally threatened due to human disturbance, predation, and habitat loss. The plovers and their eggs are well camouflaged, making it easy for beach visitors to disturb resting and foraging plovers and their chicks.
For this project, the Southern California Coastal Program worked with Ecological Services, California State Parks, and Sea and Sage Audubon Society to form the Western Snowy Plover Protection Partnership to improve roosting and nesting habitat for western snowy plover in Orange County, California.
Prior to 2020, snowy plovers overwintered at Orange County beaches, but there were few nesting attempts, likely because of heavy human disturbance. During the pandemic visitor restrictions, eight nests were observed, demonstrating that the beaches are suitable habitat. This served as the catalyst for the Western Snowy Plover Protection Partnership to consider ways to protect nests when visitors returned.
The Southern California Coastal Program provided financial and technical assistance to the Partnership team for a project with several actions supporting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Recovery Plan for the Pacific Coastal Population of the Western Snowy Plover. The project established Plover Protection Zones (PPZs) in areas of the beach where the highest concentration of nests have been observed. The PPZs are marked off by signage and surrounded by post and cable fencing to restrict access. The plovers nest inside the PPZs but they roost and forage inside and outside the PPZs. The project also developed a year-round Western Snowy Plover Docent Program to alert beachgoers about the presence of the nests and to conduct critical public outreach about avoiding activities near the PPZs that might disturb the plovers, especially during nesting season. The Southern California Coastal Program also provided support for a monitoring program to evaluate the success of the project.
Plover nesting has seen sustained success since the start of the Western Snowy Plover Protection Partnership. In 2024, the partners documented 25 nests that produced 65 eggs, of which 47 were viable and hatched. This year, there were 22 nests documented that produced 61 eggs, of which 53 hatched. While on the site visit this summer, staff saw firsthand the success of the years long effort and observed snowy plover adults sitting on nests or watching over chicks roosting or foraging for insects. Meanwhile beachgoers were picnicking, sunbathing, surfing, swimming, or participating in beach summer camp while successfully sharing the beach with the birds.
