Snowy plover roost, Coal Oil Point, Goleta, California. Photo courtesy, Morgan Ball.

Snowy plover chick alone and with dad, Coal Oil Point, Goleta, California, July 2001. Photos courtesy, Elizabeth Price.

Many visitors to the beach at the UC Coal Oil Point Natural Reserve (Sands Beach) are unaware that this stretch of sand is home to one of the largest flocks of the threatened Western Snowy Plovers. Unfortunately, this lack of awareness has led to a level of human disturbance that has been incompatible with breeding efforts; in the early 1970's the plovers stopped nesting at Coal Oil Point Reserve. High levels of disturbance continued over the next three decades. In 1999 and 2000, researchers discovered that plovers on the Reserve were being disturbed (made to expend energy by running or flying away) on average every 20 minutes by people or their pets. Coal Oil Point's managers and other local ornithologists became concerned that the plovers might also abandon their winter roost at the Reserve (as they have done at other sites - first ceasing summer breeding at a site, and some years later, abandoning the site altogether due to intolerable levels of disturbance).

Snowy Plovers were granted federal protection in 1993 under the Endangered Species Act. Six years later, the shores of Coal Oil Point Reserve (in addition to other beaches up and down the CA, OR, and WA coast) were designated as critical habitat. A draft Recovery Plan, created by a team U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and other snowy plover researchers, was released in 2001, with the goal of helping land managers set goals for local management of critical habitats where plovers occurred.

A Snowy Plover Management Plan for Coal Oil Point Reserve was drafted in 2001 by its director, Dr. Cristina Sandoval, to reduce disturbance to plovers on the Reserve while maintaining beach access for the public. The plan includes five essential parts:

• The closure of a small trail that led beach visitors into the middle of the plover roost.

• The placement of a fenced area for the plovers, which excludes people and pets.

• Placement of educational signs at the entrance and on the beach.

• More consistent enforcement of the leash law with the support of UCSB's campus police department.

• The establishment of the Snowy Plover Docent Program that focuses on plover protection, education and outreach.

To learn the current status of the Snowy Plover Docent Program, click here.

As a result of this active management, 14 plover chicks fledged in the summer of 2002, and 39 fledged in 2003, less than two years after disturbance rates were reduced. This unprecedented success strongly supports the idea that restoration of previously abandoned nesting sites is possible. Volunteers with the Snowy Plover Docent Program have been a crucial component of the plan -- by increasing public awareness and successfully protecting plover nests and eggs from crows (predators) and unleashed dogs. The successful breeding population as well as the increasing wintering population wouldn't have been possible without the implementation of the Snowy Plover Docent Program.

Snowy plovers at Sands Beach. Photo courtesy, Roger Millikan

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Chapter office address:
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Goleta, CA 93117
805-964-1468
Chapter email: Info at SantaBarbaraAudubon.org
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Updated: July 20, 2008