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The Tern & Plover Partnership is marking 10 years of fostering better relationships between humans and birds with a flurry of activity and recognition:
- Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman issued a proclamation naming October 14, 2009, as Interior Least Tern and Piping Plover Day.
- The Nebraska Environmental Trust is featuring its partnership with the Tern & Plover Conservation Partnership in a 30-second ad on Channel 10 11, KOLN KGIN, in Lincoln and Grand Island.
- The partnership is holding a naming contest for its new, large-scale plover, which will maintain a rigorous travel schedule to help raise awareness of the need to protect the birds’ breeding grounds. Submit entries via email to ternsandplovers@unl.edu, or by putting a name in the box next to the plover in the Hardin Hall lobby.
The Partnership, based in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, works to conserve and protect endangered Interior Least Terns and threatened Piping Plovers in Nebraska. The terns and plovers prefer to nest on midstream sandbars, but as river uses change, sandbars are harder to find. The birds end up nesting at sand and gravel mines and lakeshore housing developments. When birds and people want to use the same piece of property, conflicts can develop. Through a model of "commonsense conservation," the Partnership works with both birds and people to prevent and reduce conflict so everyone can thrive.
Mary Bomberger Brown, the Partnership’s Program Coordinator, said she is pleased to report that in the 10 years of the partnership, no citations have been issued for state or federal violations of species protection laws.
Gov. Dave Heineman, center, proclaimed October 14, 2009, to be Interior Least Tern and Piping Plover Day. He signed the proclamation in the Warner Chamber of the State Capitol and presented it to Christine Thody, left, and Mary Bomberger Brown, right. |
